
Book 44^ 

OFFICIAL DONAXION. 




CONSTITUTION 



J 



OK THE — 



STATE OF LOUISIANA, 



ADOPTED IN CONVENTION 



AT THR 



CITY OF NEW OR.LEANS, 



July 23, 1879. 




ADVOCATE. 

Official Journai, of I,ouisiana. 

i8q8. 



/ 



CONSTITUTION 



— OF THE — 



>f 



STATE OF LOUISIANA, 



ADOPTED IN CONVENTION 



AT THE — 



CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 



July 23, 1879. 




:> 3 ^ ) 3 - 3 3 ^ 33 

J3 3D3 30 3 



ADVOCATE. 

Official Journai, of Louisiana. 

1898. 



MAR 16 1901 
D. of D. 



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CONSTITUTION.- 



PEBAMBLE. 



AYe, the people of the State of Louisiana, iu order to estab- 
lish justice, insure domestic tranquility, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, acknowledging and invoking the guidance of Al- 
mighty God, the author of all good government, do ordain and 
establish this Constitution. 

BILL OF EIGHTS. 

AiiTiCLE 1. All government of right originates with the 
peo^Dle, is founded on their will alone, and is instituted solely for 
the good of the whole, deriving its just powers from the consent 
of the governed. Its only legitimate end is to protect the citi- 
zen in the enjoyment of life, liberty and ]3roperty. When it as- 
sumes other functions, it is usurpation and oppression. 

Aet. 2, The right of the people to secure in their per- 
sons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches 
and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue 
except upon probable cause, supx)orted by oath or affirmation, 
and particularly describing the place to be searched and the 
person or things to be seized. 

Art. 3. A well regulated militia being necessary to the 
security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear 
arms shall not be abridged. This shall not prevent the passage 
of laws to punish those who carry weapons concealed. 

AiiT. 4. Ko laws shall be passed respecting an establish- 
ment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or 
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of 
the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government 
for a redress of grievances. 

Art. 5. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary ser- 
vitude in this State, otherAvise than for the punishment of crime, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Prosecutions 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 



shall be by indictment or information; provided^ that no person 
shall be held to answer for a capital crime unless on a present- 
ment or indictment by a grand jury, except in cases arising in 
the militia when in actual service in time of war or public dan- 
ger, nov shall any person be put tAvice in jeopardy of life or 
liberty for the same offeuse. except on his own a-pplication for a 
new trial^ or where there is a mistrial, or a motion in arrest of 
judgment is sustained. 

Art. 6. No person shall be comx^elled to give evidence 
against himself in a criminal case or in any proceedings that 
may subject him to criminal prosecution, except where otherwise 
provided in this Constitution, nor be deprived of life, liberty or 
property without due process or law. 

Art. 7. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall en- 
joy the right to a speedy public trial by an impartial jury, except 
that in cases w^here the penalty is not necessarily imprison- 
ment at hard labor or death the General Assembly may provide 
for a trial thereof by a jury, less than twelve in number; 
provided, that the accused in every instance shall be tried in the 
parish wherein the offense shall have been committed, except 
in cases of change of venue. 

Art. 8. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall 
enjoy the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the 
accusa.tion, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to 
have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, 
and to defend himself, and to have the assistance of counsel and 
to have the right to challenge jurors peremptorily, the number 
of challenges to be fixed by statute. 

Art. 9. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive 
fines be imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 
All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, unless for 
capital o'ffenses, where the' proof is evident or the presumjjtion 
great; or unless after conviction for any crime or offense punish- 
able with death or imprisonment at hard labor. 

Art. 10. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall 
not be suspended, unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, 
the public safety may require it. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 



Art. 11. All courts shall be open, and every person for 
injury done him in his rights, lands, goods, person or reputatiou 
shall have adequate remedy by due process of law and justice 
administered without denial or unreasonable delay. 

Art. 12. The military shall be in subordination to the civil 
power. 

Art. l;>. , This enumeration of rights shall not be construed 
to deny or impair other rights of the people not herein expressed. 

DtSTEIBUTIOX OF PO^YEES. 

Art. 14. The powers of the government of the State of 
Louisiana shall be divided into three distinct departments, and 
each of them to be confided to a separate body of magistracy, to- 
wit: Those which are legislative to one, those which are execu- 
tive to another, and those which are judicial to another. 

Art. 15. 'No one of these departments, nor any person or 
collection of persons holding office in one of them, shall exercise 
power properly belonging to either of the other, except in the 
instances hereinafter exi^ressly directed or permitted. 

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. 

APPORTIONMENT. 

Art. 16. Eei^resentation in the House of Eepresentatives 
shall be equal and uniform, and shall be regulated and ascer- 
tained by the total population. Each parish shall have at least 
one Eepresentative. The first enumeration to be made by the 
State authorities under this Constitution shall be made in the 
year eighteen hundred and ninety, and subsequent enumerations 
shall be made every tenth year thereafter, in such manner as 
shall be prescribed by law, for the purpose of ascertaining the 
total po]Dulation and the number of qualified electors in each 
parish and election district. At its first regular session after 
each enumeration, the General Assembly shall apportion the 
representation among the several parishes and election districts 
on the basis of the total population as aforesaid. A representa- 
tive number shall be fixed, and each parish and election district 
shall have as many Eepresentatives as the aggregate number of 



Gomtitutmi of the State of Louisiana. 



its population will entitled it to, and an additional Representa- 
tive for any fraction exceeding one-half tbe representative num- 
ber. The number of Rei3resentatives shall not be more than 
ninety-eight, nor less than seventy. 

Art. 17. The General Assembly, in every year in which 
they shall apportion representation in the House of Representa- 
tives, shall divide the State into Senatorial districts. No parish 
shall be divided in the formation of a Senatorial district, the 
parish of Orleans excepted. Whenever a new parish shall be 
created, it shall be attached to the Senatorial district from which 
most of its territory was taken, or to another contiguous district, 
at the discretion of the General Assembly, but shall not be at- 
tached to more than one district. The number of Senators shall 
not be more than thirty-six nor less than twenty-four, and they 
shall be apportioned among the Senatorial districts according 
to the total population contained in the several districts. 

Art. 18. Until an enumeration shall be made in accord- 
ance with articles 16 and 17, the State shall be divided into the 
following Senatorial districts, with the number of Senators 
hereinafter designated to each district: 

The First Senatorial District shall be com]30sed of the eighth 
and ninth wards of Orleans, and of the parishes of St. Bernard 
and Plaquemines, and shall elect two Senators. 

The Second District shall be composed of the fourth, fifth, 
sixth and seventh wards of Orleans, and shall elect two Senators. 

The Third District shall be composed of the third ward of 
Orleans and shall elect one Senator. 

The Fourth District shall be composed of the second and 
fifteenth wards (Orleans right bank) of Orleans, and shall elect 
one Senator. 

The Fifth District shall be composed of the first and tenth 
wards of Orleans, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Sixth District shall be composed of the eleventh, twelfth, 
thirteenth, fourteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth wards of 
Orleans, and shall elect two Senators. 

The Seventh District shall be composed of the parishes of 
Jefferson, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist, and shall elect 
one Senator. 

The Eighth District shall be composed of the parishes of St. 
James and Ascension, and shall elect one Senator. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana, 



The Xinth District shall be composed of the parishes of 
Terrebonne, Lafourche and Assumption, and shall elect two 
Senators. 

The Tenth District shall be composed of the parishes of St. 
Mary, Yermiliou, Cameron and Calcasieu, and shall elect two 
Senators. 

The Eleventh District shall be composed of the parishes of 
St. Martin, Iberia and Lafayette, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Twelfth District shall be composed of the Parish of St. 
Landry, and shall elect two Senators. 

The Thirteenth District shall be composed of the parishes of 
Avoyelles and Pointe Coupee, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Fourteenth District shall be composed of the parishes of 
Iberville and AYest Baton Eouge, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Fifteenth District shall be composed of the parishes of 
East and West Feliciana, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Sixteenth District shall be composed of the parish of 
East Baton Eouge, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Seventeenth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Sl. Helena, Livingston, Tangi^^ahoa, Washington and St 
Tammany, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Eighteenth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Eapides and Vernon, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Nineteenth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Natchitoches, Sabine, DeSoto and Eed Eiver, and shall elect 
two Senators. 

The Twentieth District shall be composed of the parish of 
Caddo, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Twenty-first District shall be composed of the par- 
ishes of Bossier, Webster, Bienville and Claiborne, and shall 
elect two Senators. 

The Twenty-second District shall be composed of the par- 
ishes of Union, Morehouse, Lincoln and West Carroll, and shall 
elect two Senators. 

The Twenty-third District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Ouachita, Eichland, Caldwell, Franklin and Jackson, and shall 
elect two Senators. 

The Twenty -fourth District shall be composed of the par- 
ishes of Catahoula, Winn and Grant, and shall elect one Senator, 



8 Const ltutl()7i of the State of Louisinna. 

The Twenty-fifth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of East Carroll and Madison, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Twenty-sixth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Tensas and Concordia, and shall elect one Senator. 

Thirty-six* (36) Senators in all. 

And the Eepresentatives shall be apportioned among the 
parishes and representative districts, as follows: 

For the parish of Orleans — 

First Representative District, first ward, one Representative. 

Second Representative District, second ward, two Repre- 
sentatives. 

Third Representative District, third ward, three Repre- 
sentatives. 

Fonrth Representative District, fonrth ward, one Repre- 
sentative. 

Fifth Representative District, fifth ward, two Repre- 
sentatives. 

Sixth Representative District, sixth ward, one Repre- 
sentative. 

Seventh Representative District, seventh ward, tw^ Repre- 
sentatives. 

Eighth Representative District, eighth ward, one Repre- 
sentative. 

IS'inth Representative District, ninth ward, two Represent- 
atives. 

Tenth Representative District, tenth ward^ two Represent- 
atives. 

Eleventh Representative District, eleventh ward, two Rep- 
resentatives. 

Twelfth Representative District, twelfth ward, two Rei)re- 
sentatives. 

Thirteenth Representative District, thirteenth and fourteenth 
wards, one Representative. 

Fourteenth Representative District, sixteenth and seven- 
teenth wards, one Representative. 

Fifteenth Representative District, fifteenth ward, one Rep- 
resentative. 

The parishes of Ascension, West Baton Rouge, Bienville, 
Bossier, Calcasieu, Caldwell, Cameron, East Carroll, West Car- 
roll, Catahoula, Concordia, West Feliciana, Franklin, Grant, 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 



Iberia, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lincoln, Livingston, More- 
house, Ouacliita, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, Eed River, Eich- 
land. Sabine, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, 
St. John the Baptist, St. Martin, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, 
Union, Vermilion, Vernon, Washington, Webster and Winn, 
each one Eepresentative. 

The parishes of Assumption, Avoyelles, East Baton Eouge, 
Caddo, Claiborne, DeSoto, East Feliciana, Iberville. Lafourche, 
Madison, Natchitoches, Eapides, St. Mary, Tensas, Terrebonne, 
each two Eepresentatives. 

The parish of St. Landry, four Eepresentatives. 

This apportionment of Senators and Eepresentatives shall not 
be changed or altered in any manner until after the enumeration 
shall have been taken by the State in eighteen hundred and 
ninety, in accordance with the provision of articles 16 and 17. 

GENEEAL ASSEMBLY. 

Art. 19. The legislative power of the State shall be vested 
in a General Assembly, which shall consist of a Senate and 
House of Eepresentatives. 

Art. 20. The style of the laws of this State shall be: Be it 
enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana. 

Art. 21. The General Assembly shall meet at the seat of gov- 
ernment on the second Monday of May, 1882, at 12 o'clock noon, 
and biennially thereafter. Its first session under this Constiu- 
tion may extend to a period of ninety days, but any subsequent 
session may be limited to a period of sixty days. Should a 
vacancy occur in either house, the Governor shall order an elec- 
tion to fill such vacancy for the remainder of the term. 

Art. 22. Every elector under this Constitution shall be eligi- 
ble to a seat in the House of Eepresentatives, and every elector who 
has reached the age of twenty-five years shall be eligible to the 
Senate; jjrovicled, that no person shall be eligible to the General 
Assembly unless at the time of his election he has been a 
citizen of the State for five years and an actual resident of the 
district or parish from which he may be elected for two years 
immediately preceding his election. The seat of any member 
who may change his residence from the district or parish which 



10 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

he represents shall thereby be vacated, any declaration of a 
retention of domicile to the contrary notwithstanding; and 
members of the General Assembly shall be elected for a term of 
four years. 

Art. 23. Each house shall judge of the qualifications, 
election and returns of its own members, choose its own officers 
(except President of the Senate), determine the rules of its pro- 
ceedings, and may punish its members for disorderly conduct and 
contempt, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its 
members elected, expel a member. 

Art. 24. Either house, during the session, may punish by 
imprisonment any person not a member who shall have been 
guilty of disrespect by disorderly or contemi^tuous behavior j 
but such imprisonment shall not exceed ten days for each off'ense. 

Art. 25. No Senator or Eepresentative shall, during the 
term for which he was elected, nor for one year thereafter, be ap- 
pointed or elected to any civil office of profit under this State 
which may have been created, or the emoluments of which may 
have been increased by the General Assembly during the time 
such Senator or Eepresentative was a member thereof. 

Art. 26. The members of the General Assembly shall in all 
cases, except treason, felony and breach of the i3eace, be privi- 
leged from arrest during their attendance at the sessions of 
their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the 
same; and for any speech or debate in either house they shall 
not be questioned in any other place. 

Art. 27. The members of the General Assembly shall re- 
ceive a compensation not to exceed four dollars per day during 
their attendance, and their actual traveling expenses going to 
and returning from the seat of government; but in no instance 
shall more than thirty dollars each way be allowed for traveling 
expenses. 

Art. 28. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, 
and cause the same to be i3ublished immediately after the close 
of the session; when practicable, the minutes of each day's ses- 
sion shall be printed and placed in the hands of members on the 
day following. The original journal shall be preserved, after 
publication, in the office of the Secretary of State, but there shall 
be required no other record thereof. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 11 

Art. 29. Every law enacted by the General Assembly 
shall embrace but one object and that shall be expressed in the 
title. 

Art. 30. 'Eo law shall be revived or amended by reference 
to its title, but in such cases the act revived or section as 
amended shall be re-enacted and published at length. 

Art. 31. The General Assembly shall never adopt any sys- 
tem or code of laws by general reference to such system or code 
of laws; but in all cases shall recite at length the several provisions 
of the laws it may enact. 

Art. 32. ^ot less than a majority of the members of each 
house of the General Assembly shall form a quorum to transact 
business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, 
and shall have power to compel the attendance of absent mem- 
bers. 

Art. 33. Neither house during the sitting of the General 
Assembly shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for 
more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which 
it may be sitting. 

Art. 34. The yeas and nays on any question in either 
house shall, at the desire of one-fifth of the members elected, be 
entered on the journal. 

Art. 35. All bills for raising revenue or ai)propriating 
money shall originate in the House of Eei)resentatives, but the 
Senate may proi^ose or concur in amendments, as in other bills. 

Art. 36. Xo bill, ordinance or resolution, intended to have 
the eifect of a law, which shall have been rejected by either house, 
shall be again proposed in the same house during the same ses- 
sion, under the same or any other title, without the consent of a 
majority of the house by which the same was rejected. 

Art. 37. Every bill shall be read on three different days in 
each house, and no bill shall be considered for final i^assage un- 
less it has been read once in full, and the same has been reported 
on by a committee, ^'or shall any bill become a law unless, on 
its final passage, the vote be taken by yeas and nays, the names 
of the members voting for or against the same be entered on the 
journal, and a majority of the members elected to each house be 
recorded thereon as voting in its favor. 

Art. 38. ^o amendments to bills bv one house shall be con- 



12 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

curred in by the other, except by a vote of a majority of the 
members elected thereto, taken by yeas and nays, and the names 
of those voting for or against recorded upon the journal thereof; 
and reports of committees of conference shall be adopted in either 
house only by a majority of the members elected thereto, the 
vote to be taken by yeas and nays, and the names of those voting 
for or against recorded upon the journal. 

Art. 39. Whenever a bill that .has been passed by both 
houses has been enrolled and placed in possession of the house 
in which it originated the title shall be read, and, at the the re- 
quest of any five members, the bill shall be read in full, when 
the Speaker of the House of Representatives or the President of 
the Senate, as the case may be, shall act at once, sign it in open 
house, and the fact of signing shall be noted on the journal; 
thereupon the Clerk or Secretary shall immediately convey the 
bill to the other house, whose presiding officer shall cause a 
suspension of all other business to read and sign the bill in open 
session and without delay; as soon as bills are signed by the 
Speaker of the House and President of the Senate, they shall be 
taken at once, and on the same day, to the Governor by the Clerk 
of the House or Secretary of the Senate. 

Art. 40. I^o law passed by the General Assembly, except 
the general approj)riation act, or act appropriating money for the 
expenses of the General Assembly, shall take effect until pro- 
mulgated. A law shall be considered promulgated at the place 
where the State journal is published the day after the publica- 
tion of such law in the State journal, and in all other parts of 
the State twenty days after such publication. 

Art. 41. The clerical officers of the two houses shall be a 
Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Eepresenta- 
tives, with such assistants as may be necessary; but the expenses 
for clerks and employes shall not exceed sixty dollars daily for 
the Senate nor seventy dollars daily for the House. 

Art. 42. All statiooery, printing, paper and fuel used in 
the legislative and other departments of government shall be fur- 
nished, and the printing, biDding and distributing of the laws, 
journals and department reports, and all other printing and 
binding, and the repairing and furnishing the halls and rooms 
used for the meetings of the General Assembly and its commit- 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 13 

tees, shall be done under contract, to be given to the lowest re- 
sponsible bidder below such maximum price and under such 
regulations as shall be prescribed by law; provided, that such 
contracts shall be awarded only to citizens of the State. No 
member or officer of any of the departments of the government 
shall be in any way interested in the contracts; and all such con- 
tracts shall be subject to the approval of the Governor, the Presi- 
dent of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives, 
or of any two of them. 

LIMITATIOxY OF LEGISLATIVE POWEES. 

Art. 43. l^o money shall be drawn from the treasury ex- 
cept in pursuance of specific appropriation naade by law; nor shall 
any appropriation of money be made for a longer term than two 
years. A regular statement and account of receipts and exi^en- 
ditures of all public moneys shall be published every three 
months, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law. 

Art. 44. The General Assembly shall have no power to 
contract, or to authorize the contracting, of any debt or liability, 
on behalf of the State, or to issue bonds or other evidence of in- 
debtedness thereof, except for the purpose of repelling invasion 
or for the repression of insurrection. 

Art. 45. The General Assembly shall have no power to 
grant, or to authorize any parish or municipal authority to grant, 
any extra compensation, fee or allowance to a public officer, agent, 
servant or contractor, nor pay, nor authorize the payment, of any 
claim against the State, or any parish or municipality of the 
State, under any agreeinent or contract made without express 
authority of law; and all such unauthorized agreements or con- 
tracts shall be null and void. 

Art. 46. The General Assembly shall not pass any local or 
special law on the following specified objects: 

For the opening and conducting of elections, or fixing or 
changing the place of voting. 

Changing the names of persons. 

Changing the venue of civil or criminal cases. 

Authorizing the laying out, opening, closing, altering or main- 
taining roads, highways, streets or alleys, or relating to ferries 



14 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

and bridges, or incorporating bridge or ferry companies, except 
for the erection of bridges crossing streams which form bonnda- 
ries between this and any other State. 

Authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children or the 
emancipation of minors. 

Granting divorces. 

Changing the law of descent or succession. 

Affecting the estates of minors or persons under disabilities. 

Eemitting fines, penalties and forfeitures or refunding mon- 
eyes legally paid into the treasury. 

Authorizing the construction of street passenger railroads 
in any incorporated town or city. 

Eegulating labor, trade, manufacturing or agriculture. 

Creating cor]3orations, or amending, renewing, extending or 
explaining the charter thereof; provided, that this shall not apply 
to the corporation of the City of ^ew Orleans, or to the organi- 
zation of levee districts and parishes. 

Granting to any corporation, association or individual any 
special or exclusive right, privilege or immunity. 

Extending the time for the assessment or collection of taxes, 
or for the relief of any assessor or collector of taxes from the due 
performance of his official duties, or of his securities from liabil- 
ity; nor shall any such be passed by any political corporation of 
this State. 

Eegulating the practice or jurisdiction of any court, or 
changing the rules of evidence in any judicial proceeding or in- 
quiry before courts, or providing or changing methods for the 
collection of debts or the enforcement of judgments, or prescrib- 
ing the effects of judicial sales. 

Exemption of property from taxation. 

Fixing the rate of interest. 

Concerning any civil or criminal actions. 

Giving effect to informal or invalid wills or deeds, or to any 
illegal disposition of property. 

Eegulating the management of public schools, the building or 
repairing of school-houses, and the raising of money for such 
purposes. 

Legalizing the unauthorized or invalid acts of any officer, ser- 



Constitufion of the State of Louisiana. 15 

vant, agent of the State, or of any parish or municipality 
thereof. 

Art. 47. The General Assembly shall not indirectly enact 
special or local laws by the partial repeal of a general law; but 
laws repealing local or special laws may be passed. 

Art. 48. No local or special law shall be passed on any 
subject not enumerated in article 46 of this Constitution, unless 
notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been pub- 
lished, without cost to the State, in the locality where the matter 
or thing to be affected may be situated, which notice shall state 
the substance of the contemplated law, and shall be published at 
least thirty days prior to the introduction into the General 
Assembly of such bill, and in the same manner provided by law 
for the advertisement of judicial sales. The evidence of such 
notice having been published shall be exhibited in the General 
Assembly before such act shall be passed, and every such act 
shall contain a recital that such notice has been given. 

Art. 49. Is^o law shall be passed fixing the price of 
manual labor. 

Art. 50. Any member of the General Assembly who has a 
personal or private interest in any measure or bill proposed or 
pending before the General Assembly, shall disclose the fact to 
the house of which he is a member, and shall not vote thereon. 

Art. 51. No money shall ever be taken from the public 
treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect or 
denomination of religion, or in aid of any priest, i)reacher, min- 
ister or teacher thereof, as such, and no preference shall ever be 
given to, nor any discrimination made against any church, sect 
or creed or religion, or any form of religious faith or worship, 
nor shall any appropriations be made for private, charitable or 
benevolent purposes to any person or community ; provided, this 
shall not apply to the State asylums for the insane and deaf, 
dumb and blind, and the charity hospitals and public charitable 
institutions conducted under State authority. 

Art. 52. The General Assembly shall have no power to 
increase the expense of any office by appointing assistant 
of&cials. 

Art. 53. The general appropriation bill shall embrace 
nothing but appropriations for the ordinary expenses of the 
government, interest on the public debt, public schools and 



16 Consfitittio7i of the State of Louisiana. 

public charities, and such bill shall be so itemized as to show for 
what account each and every appropriation shall be made. All 
other appropriations shall be made by separate bills, each em- 
bracing but one object. 

Art. 54. Each appropriation shall be for a specific purpose, 
and no appropriation shall be made under the head or title of 
contingent; nor shall any officer or department of government 
receive any amount from the treasury for contingencies or for a 
contingent fund. 

Art. 55. 'No appropriation of money shall be made by the 
General Assembly in th'e last five days of the session thereof ; all 
appropriations to be valid, shall be passed and recieve the sig- 
natures of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House 
of Eepresentatives five full days before the adjournment sine die 
of the General Assembly. 

Art. 56. The funds, credit, property or things of value of 
the State, or of any political corporation thereof, shtill not be 
loaned, pledged or granted to or for any person or persons, 
association or corporation, public or private ; nor shall the State, 
or any political corporation, purchase or subscribe to the capital 
or stock of any corporation or association whatever, or for any 
private enterprise 5 nor shall the State, nor any political cbrpo- 
raiion thereof, assume the liabilities of any political, municipal, 
parochial, private or other corporation or association whatso- 
ever; nor shall the State undertake to carry on the business of 
any such cor|)oration or association, or become a part owner 
therein; provided, the State, through the General Assembly, 
shall have power to grant the right of way through its public 
lands to any railroad or canal. 

Art. 57. The General Assembly shall have no power to re- 
lease or extinguish, or to authorize the releasing or extinguish- 
ing, in whole or in part, the indebtedness, liability or obligation 
of any corporation or individual to this State, or to any parish 
or municipal corporation therein; provided, the heirs to confis- 
cated property may be released of all taxes due thereon at the 
date of its reversion to them. 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 

Art. 58. The Executive Department shall consist of a 
Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Auditor, Treasurer and Sec- 
retary of State. 



Constitutio7i of the State of Louisiana. l7 

Art. 59. The supreme executive po\7er of the State shall 
be vested iu a chief magistrate, who shall be styled the Governor 
of Louisiana. He shall hold his office during four years, and, 
together with the Lieutenant Governor, chosen for the same 
term, shall be elected as follows : The qualified electors for Eep- 
resentatives shall vote for a Governor and Lieutenant Governor 
at the time and place of voting for Eepresentatives. 

The returns of every election for Governor and Lieutenant 
Governor shall be sealed up separately from the returns of elec- 
tion of other officers and transmitted by the proper officer of 
everj^ j)arish to the Secretary of State, who shall deliver them, 
unopened, to the General Assembly then next to be holden. The 
members of the General Assembly shall meet on the first Thurs- 
day after the day on which they assemble, in the House of Eep- 
resentatives, to examine and count the votes. The person having 
the greatest number of votes for Governor shall be declared duly 
elected; but in case two or more persons shall be equal and high- 
est in the number of votes polled for Governor, one of them shall 
be immediately chosen Governor by the joint vote of the mem- 
bers of the General Assembly. The person having the greatest 
number of votes for Lieutenant Governor shall be Lieutenant 
Governor ; but if two or more persons shall be equal and highest 
in number of votes polled for Lieutenant Governor, one of them 
shall be immediately chosen Lieutenant Governor by joint vote 
of the members of the General Assembly. 

Art. 60. No person shall be eligible to the ofiice of Governor 
or Lieutenant Governor who shall not have attained the age of 
thirty years, been ten years a citizen of the United States, and 
resident of the State for the same space of time next preceding 
his election, or who shall be a member of Congress, or shall hold 
office under the United States at the time of, or within six months 
immediately preceding the election for such office. 

Art. 61. The Governor shall enter on the discharge of his 
duties the first Monday next ensuing the announcement by the 
General Assembly of the result of the election for Governor, and 
shall continue in office until the Monday next succeeding the day 
that his successor shall have been declared duly elected and shall 
have taken the oath or affirmation required by the Constitution. 

Art. 62. In case of the impeachment of the Governor, his 



18 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

removal from office, death, refusal or inability to qualify, disa- 
bility, resignation or absence from the State, the powers and 
duties of the office shall devolve upon the Lieutenant Governor 
for the residue of the term, or until the Governor, absent or im- 
peached, shall return or be acquitted or the disability be removed. 
In the event of the removal, impeachment, death, resignation, 
disability or refusal to qualify of both the Governor or Lieuten- 
ant Governor, the President pro tempore of the Senate shall act 
as Governor until the disability be removed or for the residue of 
the term. 

Aet. 63. The Lieutenant Governor, or officer discharging 
the duties of Governor, shall, during his administration, receive 
the same compensation to which the Governor would have been 
entitled had he continued in office. 

Art. 64. The Lieutenant Governor shall, by virtue of his 
office, be President of the Senate, but shall have only a casting 
vote therein. The Senate shall elect one of its members a& 
President pro tempore of the Senate. 

Art. 65. The Lieutenant Governor shall receive for his 
services a salary which shall be double that of a member of the 
General Assembly, and no more. 

Art. %^. The Governor shall have i^ower to grant reprieves 
for all offenses against the State, and, except in cases of impeach- 
ment or treason, shall, upon the recommendation in writing of 
the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and presiding judge 
of the court before which conviction w^as had, or of any two of 
them, have power to grant pardons, commute sentences, and re- 
mit fines and forfeitures after conviction. In cases of treason 
he may grant reprieves until the end of the next session of the 
General Assembly, in which body the power of pardoning is 
vested. 

Art. 67. The Governor shall receive a salary of four thou- 
sand dollars per annum, payable monthly on his own warrant. 

Art. 68. He shall nominate, and by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate, appoint all officers whose offices are 
established by this Constitution, and whose appointments or elec- 
tions are not herein otherwise provided for ; provided, however, 
that the General Assembly shall have the riglit to prescribe the 
mode of appointment and election to all offices created by it. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 19 

Akt. 69. The Governor shall have the power to fill vacan- 
cies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, in case not 
otherwise provided for in this Constitution, by granting commis- 
sions which shall expire at the end of the next session; but no 
person who has been nominated for office and rejected shall be 
appointed to the same office during the recess of the Senate. 
The failure of the Governor to send into the Senate the name of 
any person appointed for office, as herein provided, shall be 
equivalent to a rejection. 

Art. 70. He may require information in writing from the 
officers in the executive department upon any subject relating to 
the duties of their respective offices. He shall be Commander-in- 
Chief of the militia of the State, except when they shall be called 
into the actual service of the United States. 

Art. 71. He shall, from time to time, give to the General 
Assembly information respecting the situation of the State, and 
recommend to its consideration such measures as he may deem 
expedient. 

.Art. 72. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully exe- 
cuted, and he m.iy, on extraordinary occasions, convene the Gen- 
eral Assembly at the seat of government, or, if that should have 
become dangerous from an enemy or from an epidemic, at a dif- 
ferent place. The power to legislate shall be limited to the ob- 
jects enumerated specifically in the proclamation convening such 
extraordinary session; therein the Governor shall also limit the 
time such session may continue; provided, it shall not exceed 
twenty days. Any legislative action had after the time so limi- 
ted, or as to other objects than those enumerated in said procla- 
mation, shall be null and void. 

Art. 73. Every bill which shall have passed both houses 
shall be presented to the Governor. If he approve, he shall sign it; 
if not, he shall return it, with his objection, to the house in which 
it originated, which house shall enter the objections at large 
upon the journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such 
reconsideration, two-thirds of all the members elected to that 
house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, with the ob- 
jections, to the other house, by w^hich likewise it shall be recon- 
sidered, and if passed by two- thirds of the members elected to 
that house, it shall be a law; but in such cases the votes of both 



20 Constitufion of the State of Louisiana. 

houses shall be taken by yeas, and nays, and the names of the 
members voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the 
■journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be re- 
turned by the Governor within five days after it shall have been 
presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he 
had signed it, unless the General Assembly, by adjournment, shall 
prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

Art. • 74. The Governor shall have power to disapprove o^ 
any item or items of any bill making appropriations of money 
embracing distinct items, and the part or parts of the bill approved 
shall be law^, and the item or items of appropriation disapproved 
shall be void unless re-passed according to the rules and limita- 
tions prescribed for the passage of other bills over the Executive 
veto. 

Art. 75. Every order, resolution or vote to which the con- 
currence of both houses may be necessary, except on a question of 
adjournment, or on matters of parliamentary jDroceedings, or an 
address for removal from office, shall be presented to the Gov- 
ernor, and before it shall take effect be approved by him, or, 
being disapproved, shall be re-passed by two-thirds of the mem- 
bers elected to each house. 

Art. 76. The Treasurer, Auditor, Attorney General and 
Secretary of State shall be elected by the qualified electors of the 
State for the term of four years; and in ease of vacancy caused 
by death, resignation or permanent absence of either of said 
officer?, the Governor shall fill such vacancy by appointment, 
with the advice and consent of the Senate; pr(m(led, however? 
that notwithstanding such appointment, such vacancy shall be 
filled by election at {the next election after the occurrence of the 
vacancy. 

Art. 77. The Auditor of Public Accounts shall receive a 
salary of two thousand five hundred dollars per annum; the Treas- 
urer shall receive a salary of two thousand dollars per annum? 
and the Secretary of State shall receive a salary of one thousand 
eight hundred dollars ]3er annum. Each of the before named offi- 
cers shall be paid monthly, and no fees or perquisites or other 
compensation shall be allowed to said officers; provided^ that the 
Secretary of State may be allow^ed fees as may be provided by 
law for copies and certificates furnished to private persons. 



Constitutmi of the State of Louisiana. 21 

Art. 78. Appropriations for the clerical expenses of the 
officers named in the preceding article shall specify each item of 
such appropriations ; and shall not exceed in any one year, for 
the Treasurer, the sum of two thousand dollars; for the Secretary' 
of State the sum of one thousand five hundred dollars 5 and for 
the Auditor of Public Accounts, the sum of four thousand 
dollars. 

Art. 79. All commissions shall be in the name and by the 
authority of the State of Louisiana, and shall be sealed with 
the State seal, signed by the Governor and countersigned by the 
Secretary of State. 

JUDICIAEY DEPAETMENT. 

Art. 80. The judical power shall be vested in a Supreme 
Court, in courts of appeal, in district courts and in justices of 
the peace. 

Art. 81. The SaiDreme Court, except in cases hereinafter 
provided, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which jurisdic- 
tion shall extend to all cases when the matter in dispute, or the 
fund to be distributed, whatever may be the amount therein 
claimed, shall exceed one thousand dollars, exclusive of interest 
to suits for divorce and separation from bed and board, and to 
all cases in which the constitutionality or legality of any tax, toll 
or impost whatever, or of any fine, forfeiture or penalty imposed 
by a municipal corporation shall be in contestation, whatever 
may be the amount thereof, and in such cases the appeal on the 
law and the fact shall be directly from the court in which the 
case originated to the Supreme Court; and to criminal cases on 
questions of law alone, whenever the i^unishment of death or 
imprisonment at hard labor may be inflicted or a fine exceeding 
three hundred dollars ($300) is actually imposed. 

Art. 82. The Supreme Court shall be composed of one 
Chief Justice and four Associate Justices, a majority of whom 
shall constitute a quorum. The Chief Justice and Associate 
Justices shall each receive a salary of five thousand dollars 
($5000) per annum, payable monthly on their own warrants. 
They shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate. The first Supreme Court to 
be organized under this Constitution shall be appointed as 
follows : The Chief Justice for the term of twelve years ; one 



22 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

Associate Justice for the term of ten years; one for the term of 
eight years; one for the term of six years; one for the term of 
four years; and the Governor shall designate in the commission 
of each the term for which such judge is appointed. In case of 
death, resignation or removal from office of any of said judges 
the vacancy shall be filled by appointment for the unexpired 
term of such judge, and upon expiration of the term of any such 
judges the ofdce shall be filled by appointment for a term of 
twelve years. They shall be citizens of the United States and of 
the State, over thirty-five years of age, learned in the law, and 
shall have practiced law in this State for ten years preceding 
their appointment. 

Art. S3. The State shall be divided into four Supreme 
€ourt Districts, and the Supreme Court shall always be com- 
posed of judges appointed from said districts. The parishes of 
Orleans, St. John the Baptist. St. Charles, St. Bernard, Plaque- 
mines and Jefferson shall compose the first district, from which 
two judges shall be appointed. 

The parishes of C;iddo, Bossier. Webster, Bienville, Clai- 
borne, Union, Lincoln, Jackson, Caldwell. Ouachita, Morehouse, 
Richland, Franklin, West Carroll, East Carroll, Madison, 
Tensas, and Catahoula shall compose the second district, from 
which one judge shall be appointed. 

The parishes of DeSoto, Red River, Winn, Grant, I^atchi- 
toches, Sabine, Yernon, Calcasieu, Cameron, Rapides, Avoyelles, 
Concordia, Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, Iberville, St. 
Landry, Lafayette and Vermilion, shall compose the third dis- 
trict, from which one judge shall be appointed. 

And the parishes of St. Martin, Iberia, St. Mary, Terre- 
bonne, Lafourche, Assumption, St. James, Ascension, East Baton 
Rouge, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, St. Helena. Livingston, 
Tangipahoa, St. Tammany and Washington shall compose the 
fourth district, from which one judge shall be appointed. 

Art. 84. The Supreme Court shall hold its sessions in 
the city of 'New Orleans from the first Monday in the month 
of November to the end of the month of May in each and every 
year. The GeneraL Assembly shall have power to fix the 
sessions elsewhere during the rest of the year. Until otherwise 
provided the sessions shall be held as heretofore. They shall 
appoint their own clerks and remove them at pleasure. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 23 

Art. 85. l^o judgment shall be rendered by the Supreme 
Court without the concurrence of three judges. Whenever three 
members cannot concur, in consequence of the recusation of any 
member or members of the court, the judges not recused shall have 
authority to call on any judge or judges of the district courts, 
whose dnt}^ it shall be, when called upon, to sit in the place of 
the judge or judges recused, and to aid in the determination of 
the case. 

Art. 86. All judges, by virtue of their office, shall be con- 
servators of the peace throughout the State. The style of all pro- 
cess shall be, '' The State of Louisiana." All prosecutions shall 
be carried on in the name and by the authority of the State of 
Louisiana, and conclude: '• Against the peace and dignity of the 
same." 

Art. 87. The judges of all courts, whenever practicable, 
shall refer to the law by virtue of which every definite judgment 
is rendered, but in all cases they shall adduce the reasons on 
which their judgment is founded. 

Art. 88. There shall be a reporter of the decisions of the 
Supreme Court, who shall report in full all cases which he may 
be required to report by law or by the court. He shall publish 
in the reports the title, numbers and head notes of all cases 
decided, whether reported in full or not. 

In all cases reported in full he shall make a brief statement 
of the principal points presented and authorities cited by counsel. 

He shall be appointed by a majority of the court, and hold 
his office and be removable at their pleasure. 

His salary shall be fixed by the court, and shall not exceed 
fifteen hundred dollars per annum, payable monthly on his own 
warrant. 

Art. 89. The Supreme Court and each of the judges thereof 
shall have power to issue writs of habeas corpus at the instance of 
all persons in actual custody in cases where it may have appel- 
late jurisdiction. 

Art. 90. The Supreme Court shall have control and general 
supervision over all inferior courts. They shall have power to 
issue writs of certiorari, prohibition, mandamus, quo warranto 
and other remedial writs. 



24 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

Art. 91. The General Assembly shall provide for appeals^ 
from the district court to the Supreme Court upon questions of 
law alone, when the party or parties aggrieved desire only a re- 
view of the law. 

Art. 92. Except as herein provided, no duties or functions 
shall ever be attached by law to the Supreme Court, courts of 
ai^peal or district courts, or the several judges thereof, but such 
as are judicial, and the said judges are prohibited from receiv- 
ing any fees of ofhce or other compensation than their salaries 
for any official duties performed by them. No judicial powers, 
excei3t as committing magistrates in criminal cases shall be con- 
ferred on any officer other than those mentioned in this title; 
except such as maj" be necessary in towns and cities; and the 
judicial i)owers of such officers shall not extend further than the 
cognizance of cases arising under the police regulations of towns 
and cities in the State. 

Art. 93. The judges of all courts shall be liable to impeach- 
ment for crimes and misdemeanors. For any reasonable cause the 
Governor shall remove any of them on the address of two-thirds 
of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly. 
In every case the cause or causes for which such removal may be 
required shall be stated at length in the address, and inserted in 
the journal of each house. 

ATTOENEY GENERAL. 

Art. 94. There shall be an Attorney General for the State, 
who shall be elected by the qualified electors of the State at large 
every four years. He shall be learned in the law, and shall have 
actually resided and practiced law as a licensed attorney in the 
State five years next preceding his election. He shall receive a 
salary of three thousand dollars per annum, payable monthly on 
his own warrant. 

. COURTS OF APPEALS. 

Art. 95. The courts of appeal, except in . cases hereinafter 
provided, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which jurisdic- 
tion shall extend to all cases, civil or probate, when the matter in 
dispute or the funds to be distributed shall exceed two hundred 
dollars, exclusive of interest, and shall not exceed one thousand 
dollars, exclusive of interest. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 25 

Art. 96. The courts of appeal shall be composed of two 
circuit judges, who shall be elected by the two houses of the 
General Assembly in joint session. The first judges of the courts 
of appeal under this Constitution shall be elected for the follow- 
ing terms : One judge for each court for the term of four years 
and one judge for the term of eight years. 

Art. 97. The State, with the exception of the parish of 
Orleans, shall be divided into five circuits, from each of which 
two judges shall be elected. Until otherwise provided bylaw, 
the parishes of Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Bienville, DeSoto, Eed 
Eiver, Claiborne, Union, Lincoln, Natchitoches, Sabine, Jack- 
son, ^Yinn and Caldwell shall compose the First Circuit. 

Tlie parishes of Ouachita, Eichland, Morehouse, West Car- 
roll, Catahoula, Franklin, Madison, East Carroll, Concordia and 
Tensas shall compose the Second Circuit. 

The parishes of Eapides, Grant, Avoyelles, St. Landry, Ver- 
non, Calcasieu, Cameron, Lafayette, Vermilion, St. Martin and 
Iberia shall comj^ose the Third Circuit. 

The parishes of East Baton Eouge, West Baton Eouge, Iber- 
ville, East Feliciana, St. Helena, Tangix^ahoa, Livingston, St. 
Tammany, Washington, Pointe Couj^ee and West Feliciana shall 
com]>ose the Fourth Circuit. 

And the parishes of St. Mary. Terrebonne, Ascension, La- 
fourche, Assumption, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, Jefferson, St. 
Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James shall compose the 
Fifth Circuit. 

Art. 98. The judges of the courts of appeal, until other- 
wise provided by law, shall hold two terms annually in each 
parish composing their respective circuits. 

Art. 99. Lentil otherwise j^rovided by law, the terms of 
the circuit courts of appeal shall be as follows: 

FIEST CIECUIT. 

Caddo — First Mondays in January and June. 
Bossier — Third Mondays in January and June. 
Webster — First Mondays in February and July. 
Bienville — Second Mondays in Februarj' and July. 
Claiborne — Third Mondays in February and July. 



26 Constitution of the State of LovAsiana. 

Union — First Mondays in March and October. 
Lincoln — Second Mondays in March and October. 
Jackson — ^Third Mondays in March and October. 
Caldwell — Fonrth Mondays in March and October. 
Winn — First Mondays in A^pril and November. 
Natchitoches — Second Mondays in April and November. 
Sabine — Fourth Mondays in April and November. 
DeSoto — First Mondays in May and December. 
Eed Eiver — Third Mondays in May and December. 

SECOND CIRCUIT. 

Ouachita — First Mondays in January and June. 
Richland — Fourth Mondays in January and June. 
Franklin — First Mondays in February and July. 
Catahoula — Second Mondays in February and July. 
Concordia — Fourth Mondays in February and 3\\\y. 
Tensas — Second Mondays in March and October. 
Madison — Fourth Mondays in March and October. 
East Carroll — Second Mondays in April aud November. 
West Carroll — Fourth Mondays in April and November. 
Morehouse — First Mondays in May and December. 

THIRD CIRCUIT. 

St. Landry — First Mondays in January and June. 
Avoyelles — Fourth Mondays in January and June. 
Rapides — Second Mondays in February and July. 
Grant — Fourth Mondays in February and July. 
Vernon — First Mondays in March and October. 
Calcasieu — Second Mondays in March and October. 
Cameron — Fourth Mondays in March and October. 
Vermilion — First Mondays in April and November. 
Lafayette — Second Mondays in April and November. 
Iberia — Fourth Mondays in April and November. 
St. Martin — Second Mondays in May and December. 

FOURTH CIRCUIT. 

East Baton Rouge — First Mondays in January aud June. 
West Baton Rouge — Fourth Mondays in January and June. 
Livingston — First Mondays iuFebraary and July. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 27 



Tangipahoa — Second Mondays in February and July. 
St, Tammany — Fourtli Mondays in February nnd July. 
Washington — First Mondays in March and October, 
St. Helena — Second Mondays in March and October. 
East Feliciana — Fourth Mondays in March and October. 
West Feliciana — Second Mondays in April and I^^ovember, 
Pointe Coupee — Fourth Mondays in April and jSTovember. 
Iberville — Second Mondays in May and December. 

FIFTH CIRCUIT. 

St. Mary — First Moudays in January aud June. 
Terrebonne — Third Mondays in January and June. 
Assumption — First Mondays in February and July. 
Lafourche — Third Mondays in February and July. 
St. Charles — First Mondays in March and October. 
Jefferson — Second Mondays in March and October. 
St. Bernard — Fourth Mondays in March and October. 
Plaquemines — First Mondays in April and ]N^ovember. 
St. John the Baptist — Second Mondays in April and N^ovem- 



ber 



St. James — Third .Mondays in April and November. 

Ascension — Second Mondays in May and December. 

AiJT. 100. Whenever the first day of the term shall fall on 
a tegal holiday, the court shall begin its sessions on the first legal 
day thereafter. 

Art. 101. Whenever the judges composing the courts of 
appeal shall concur, their judgment shall be final. 

Whenever there shall be a disagreement, the judgment ap" 
pealed from shall stand affirmed. 

Art. 102. All causes on appeal to the courts of appeal 
shall be tried on the original record, pleadings and evidence in 
the district court. 

Art. 108. The rules of practice regulating appeals to and 
proceedings in the Supreme Court shall apply to appeals and 
proceedings in the courts of appeal, so far as they may be appli- 
cable, until otherwise provided by law. 

Art. 104. The judges of the courts of appeal shall have 
power to issue writs of habeas corpus at the instance of all persons 



28 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

iu actual oustody, witbiii their respective circuits. They shal 
also have authorit}" to issue writs of mandamus, prohibitiou, and 
certiorari, in aid of their appellate jurisdiction. 

Art. 105. The judges of courts of appeal shall each receive 
a salary of four thousand dollars per annum, payable monthly 
on their respective warrants. 

The General Assembly shall provide by law for the trial of 
recused cases in the courts of appeal. 

Art. 106. The sheriff of the i^arish in which the sessions of 
the court are held shall attend in person, or by deputy, to exe- 
cute the oi'ders of the court. 

DISTEICT COUETS. 

Art. 107. The State shall be divided into not ICvSs than 
twenty nor more than thirty judicial districts, the parish of Or- 
leans excepted. 

Art. 108. Until otherwise provided by law, there shall be 
twenty- six districts. 

The parish of Caddo shall compose the First District. 

The parishes of Bossier, Webster and Bienville shall com- 
pose the Second District. 

The parishes of Claiborne, Union and Lincoln shall compose 
the Third District. 

The parishes of Jackson, Winn and Caldwell shall compose 
the Fourth District. 

The parishes of Ouachita and Richland shall compose the 
Fifth District. 

The parishes of Morehouse and West Carroll shall compose 
the Sixth District. 

The parishes of Catahoula and Franklin shall compose the 
Seventh District. 

The parishes of Madison and East Carroll shall compose the 
Eighth District. 

The parishes of Concordia and Tensas shall compose the 
Ninth District. . 

The parishes of DeSoto and Red River shall comj)ose the 
Tenth District. 

The parishes of Natchitoches and Sabine shall compose the 
Eleventh District. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 29 

The parishes of Rapides, Grant and Avoyelles shall compose 
the Twelfth District. 

The parish of St. Landry shall compose the Thirteenth District. 

The parishes of Yernon, Calcasieu and Cameron shall com- 
pose the Fourteenth District. 

The parishes of Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana shall 
compose the Fifteenth District. 

The parishes of East Feliciana and St. Helena shall comj)Ose 
the Sixteenth District. 

The parish of East Baton Eouge shall compose the Seven- 
teenth District. 

The parishes of Tangipahoa, Livingston, St. Tammany and 
Washington shall compose the Eighteenth District. 

The parishes of St. Mary and Terrebonne shall compose the 
Nineteenth District. 

The parishes of Lafourche and Assumption shall compose 
the Twentieth District. 

The parishes of St. Martin and Iberia shall compose the 
Twenty-first District. 

The parishes of Ascension and St. James shall compose the 
Twenty-second District. 

The parishes of West Baton Rouge and Iberville shall com- 
pose the Twenty-third District. 

The parishes of Plaquemines and St. Bernard shall compose 
the Twenty -fourth District. 

The parishes of Lafayette and Vermilion shall compose the 
Twenty-fifth District. 

And the parishes of Jefferson, St. Charles and St. John 
the Baptist shall compose the Twenty-sixth District. 

Art. 109. District courts shall have original jurisdiction 
in all civil matters where the amount in dispute shall exceed fifty 
dollars, exclusive of interest. 

They shall have unlimited original jurisdiction in all crimi- 
nal, probate and succession matters, and when a succession is a 
party defendant. 

The district judges shall be elected by a plurality of the quali- 
fied voters of their respective districts in which they shall have 
been actual residents for two years next preceding their election. 

They shall be learned in the law, and shall have practiced 
law in the State for five years previous to their election. 



30 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

They shall be elected for the term of four years. All elections 
to fill vacancies occasioned by death, resignation or removal 
shall be for the unexpired term, and the Governor shall fill the 
vacancy until an election can be held. 

The judges of the district courts shall each receive a salary 
of three thousand dollars per annum, payable monthly on their 
respective warrants. 

Art. 110. The General Assembly shall have power to in- 
crease the number of district judges in nuj district whenever the 
public business may require. 

Art. 111. The district courts shall have jurisdiction of ap- 
peals from justices of the peace in all matters where the amount 
in controversy shall exceed ten dollars, exclusive of interest. 

Art. 112. The General Assembly shall provide by law for 
the trial of recused cases in the district courts by the selection of 
licensed attorneys-at-law, by an interchange of judges or other- 
wise. 

Art. 113. Whenever in this Constitution the qualification 
of any justice or judge shall be the iDrevious practice of the law 
for a term of years, there shall be included in such term the time 
such justice or judge shall have occupied the bench of any court 
of any record in this State; provided, he shall have been a licensed 
attorney lor five years before his election or appointment. 

Art. 114. ]N'o judge of any court of the State shall be af- 
fected in his term of office, salary or jurisdiction as to territory 
or amount during the term or j)eriod for which he was elected or 
appointed. Any legislation so affecting any judge or court shall 
take effect only at the end of the term of office of the judge or 
judges incumbents of the court or courts to which such legisla- 
lation may apply at the time of its enactment. This article shall 
not affect the provisions of this Constitution relative to impeach- 
ment or removal from office. 

Art. 115. The district judges shall have power to issue 
writs of habeas corpus, ?it the instance of all i^ersons in actual cus- 
tody in their respective districts. 

Art. 116. The General Assembly at its first session under 
this Constitution shall provide by general law for the selection of 
competent and intelligent jurors, who shall have capacity to 



Consfifution of the State of Louisiana. 31 

serve as grand jurors and try and determine both civil and 
criminal cases, and may provide in civil cases that a verdict be 
rendered by the concurrence of a less number than the whole. 

Art. 117. In those districts composed of one parish there 
shall not be less than six terms of the District Court each year. 

In all other districts there shall be in each parish not less 
than four terms of the District Court each year, except in the 
parish of Cameron, in which there shall not be less than two 
terms of tlie District Court eacli year. 

Until provided by law, the terms of the District Court in 
each parish shall be fixed by a rule of said court, whicli sliall 
not be changed without notice by publication at least thirty days 
X>rior to such change. 

There shall be in each parish not less than two jury terms 
each year at which a grand jury shall be impaneled, except in the 
parish of Cameron, in which there shall not be less than one jury 
term each year at which a grand jury shall be impaneled. 

At other jury terms the General Assembly shall provide for 
special juries when necessary for the trial of criminal cases. 

SHERIFFS AISD C0R0:N^ERS. 

Aet. lis. There shall be a sheriff and coroner elected by the 
QTialified voters of each parish in the State, except the parish of 
Orleans, who shall be elected at the general elections and hold 
oflice for four years. 

The coroner shall act for and in place of the sheriff Avhenever 
the sheriff shall be party interested, and whenever there shall be 
a vacancy in the office of sheriff", until such vacancy shall be 
filled ; but he shall not during such vacancy discharge the duties 
of tax collector. 

The sheriff', except in the parish of Orleans, shall be ex-officio 
collector of State and parish taxes. 

He shall give separate bonds for the faithful performance of 
his duty in each capacity. Until otherwise provided, the bonds 
shall be given according to existing laws. 

The General Assembly, after the adoption of this Constitu- 
tion, shall pass a general law regulating the amount, form, 
condition and mode of approval of such bonds, so as to fully 
secure the State and parish and all parties in interest. 



32 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 



Sheriffs elected at the first election under this Constitution 
shall comply with the provisions of such law within thirty days 
after its promulgation, in default of which the office shall be de- 
clared vacant, and the Governor shall appoint for the remainder 
of the term. 

Aet. 119. Sheriffs shall receive compensation from the 
parish for their services in criminal matters (the keeping of 
prisoners, conveying convicts to the Penitentiary, insane persons 
to the Insane Asylum, and service of process from another i>arish, 
and service of process or the performance of any duty beyond the 
limits of his own parish excepted), not to exceed five hundred 
dollars per annum for each Eepresentative the i)arish may have 
in the House of Eepresentatives. 

The comi^ensation of sheriffs as tax collectors shall not 
exceed five per cent, on the amount collected and paid over ; 
provided, that he shall not be discharged as tax collector until he 
makes proof that he has exhausted the legal remedies to collect 
the taxes. 

Art. 120. Tlie coroner in each j^arish shall be a doctor of 
medicine, regularly licensed to practice, and ex-officio parish 
13hysician ; provided, this article shall not apply to any parish in 
w^hich there is no regularly licensed physician who will accept 
the office. 

CLEEKS. 

Art. 121. There shall be a clerk of the district court in 
each parish, the parish of Orleans excepted, who shall be ex- 
officio clerk of the Court of Appeal. 

He shall be elected by the qualified electors of the parish 
every four years, and shall be ex-officio parish recorder of 
conveyances, mortgages and other acts, and notary public. 

He shall receive no compensation for his services from the 
State or the parish in criminal matters. 

He shall give bond. and security for the faithful performance 
of his duties in such amount as shall be fixed by the General 
Assembly. 

Art. 122. The General Assembly shall have power to vest 
in clerks of courts authority to grant such orders and to do such 



Constitidion of the State of Louisiana. 3^ 

acts as Diay be deemed necessary for the furtherance of the ad- 
ministration of justice; and in all cases powers thus vested shall 
be specified and determined. 

Art. 123. Clerks of district courts may appoint, with the 
approval of the district judge, deputies, with such i^owers as shall 
be prescribed by law; and the General Assembly shall have 
power to provide for continuing one or more of them in office in 
the event of the death of the clerk until his successor shall have 
been appointed and duly qualified. 

DISTRICT ATTORNEYS. 

Art. 124. There shall be a district attorney for each judi- 
cial district in the State, who shall be elected by the qualified 
electors of the judicial district. He shall receive a salary of one 
thousand dollars per annum, j)ayable monthly on his own war- 
rant, and shall hold office for four years. He shall be an actual 
resident of the district and a licersed attorney-at-law in this 
State. 

He shall also receive fees; but no fees sha,ll be allowed in 
criminal cases, except on conviction. 

Any vacancy in the office of district attorney shall be filled 
by appointment by the Governor for the unexpired term. There 
shall be no parish attorney or district attorney pro tempore. 
(This article shall not apply to the parish of Orleans.) 

JUSTICES OF PEACE. 

Art. 125. In each parish, the parish of Orleans excepted,, 
there shall be as many justices of the peace as may be provided 
by law. 

The present number of justices of the peace shall remain as 
now fixed until otherwise provided. They shall be elected for 
the term of four years by the qualified voters within the territo- 
rial limits of their jurisdiction. 

They shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all civil 
matters when the matter in dispute shall not exceed fifty dollars, 
exclusive of interest, and original jurisdiction concurrent with 
the district court, when the amount in dispute shall exceed fifty 
dollars, exclusive of interest, and shall not exceed one hundred 
dollars, exclusive of interest. 



34 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

They shall have no jurisdiction in succession or probate 
matters, or when a succession is a defendant. They shall receive 
such fees or salary as may be fixed by law. 

Art. 126. They shall have criminal jurisdiction as com- 
mitting magistrates, and shall have power to bail or discharge in 
cases not capital or necessarily punishable at hard labor. 

COK^STABLES. 

Art. 127. There shall be a constable for the court of each 
justice of the peace in the several parishes of the State, the 
parish of Orleans excepted, who shall be elected for the term of 
four years by the qualified voters within the territorial limits of 
the jurisdiction of the several justices of the peace. 

The compensation, salaries or fees of constables and the 
amount of their bonds shall be fixed by the General Assembly. 

COUETS OF THE PAEISH AND CITY OF NEW 
ORLEANS. 

Art. 128. There shall be in the parish of Orleans a court 
of appeals for said parish, with exclusive api)ellate jurisdiction 
in all matters, civil or probate, arising in said parish, when the 
amount in dispute or fund to be distributed exceeds two hundred 
dollars, interest excluded, and is less than one thousand dollars, 
exclusive of interest. Said court shall be presided over by two 
judges who shall be elected by the General Assembly in joint ses- 
sion; they shall be residents and voters of the city of New 
Orleans, i^ossessiug all the qualifications necessary forjudges of 
Circuit Courts of Api^eals throughout the State. They shall 
each receive an annual salary of four thousand dollars, payable 
monthly upon their respective warrants. 

Said appeals shall be upon questions of law alone in all cases 
involving less than five hundred dollars, exclusive of interest, 
and upon the law and the facts in other cases. 

It shall sit in the city of New Orleans from the first Monday 
of November to the last Monday of June of each year. 

It shall have authority to issue writs of mandamus, prohibi- 
tion, certiorari and habeas corpus in aid of its appellate juris- 
diction. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 35 

Art. 129. The provisions of this Constitution relating to the 
term of office, qualifications and salary of the judges of the Cir- 
cuit Courts of Appeal throughout the State, and the manner of 
proceeding and determining causes as applicable to such Circuit 
Court of Appeals, shall apply to this court and its judges, in so 
far as such i)rovisions are not in conflict with the i^ro visions 
specially relating to said court and its judges. 

Said Court of Appeals shall have jurisdiction of all causes 
now pending on appeal from the parish of Orleans before the 
Supreme Court of the State, where the amount in dispute or fund 
to be distributed is less than one thousand dollars, exclusive of 
interest, and the Supreme Court shall at once transfer said causes 
to the Court of Appeals. 

Art. 130. For the parish of Orleans there shall be two dis- 
trict courts, and no more. One of said courts shall be known as 
the Civil District Court for the parish of Orleans, and the other 
as the Criminal District Court for the parish of Orleans. The 
former shall consist of not less than five judges, and the latter 
not less than two judges, having the qualifications prescribed 
for district j udges throughout the State. The said judges shall 
be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate, for the term of eight years. The first ap- 
pointments shall be made as follows: Three judges of the Civil 
District Court for four years and two for eight years; one judge 
of the Criminal District Court for four years and one for eight 
years, the terms to be designated in their commissions. 

The said judges shall receive each four thousand dollars per 
annum. Said Civil District Court shall have exclusive and 
general probate and exclusive civil jurisdiction in all cause^ 
where the amount in dispute or to be distributed exceeds one 
hundred dollars, exclusive of interest. All causes filed in said 
court shall be equally allotted and assigned among said judges in 
accordance with rules of court to be adopted for that purpose. In 
case of recusation of any judge in any cause, such cause shall be 
reassigned to some other judge. In case of vacancy there shall 
be a reassignment, in accordance with rules of court. Previous to 
reassignment, or in case of absence from the parish, sickness or 
other disability of the judge to whom any cause may have been 
assigned, any judge of said court may issue or grant conserva- 



3G Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

tory writs or orders. In other respects each judge shall have 
exclusive control over every cause assigned to him from its in- 
ception to its final determination in said court. The Criminal 
District Court shall have general criminal jurisdiction only. 
All prosecutions instituted in said court shall be equally appor- 
tioned between said judges by lot. Each judge or his successor 
shall have exclusive control over every cause falling to him 
from its inception to its final determination in said court. In 
case of vacancy or recusation, causes assigned shall be reassigned 
under order of court. 

Art. 181. The General Assembly may increase the number 
of judges of the Civil District Court, not. however, to exceed nine 
judges, and the number of the criminal judges, not to exceed 
three. 

Art. 132. The Court of Appeals and the Civil and Criminal 
District Courts for the parish of Orleans shall respectively regu- 
late the order of preference and trial of causes pending, and adopt 
other rules to govern the proceedings therein not in conflict with 
the provisions of law. 

Art. 133. The Civil District Court for the parish of Orleans 
shall select a solvent, incorporated bank of the city of ^ew Or- 
leans as a judicial depository. Therein shall be deposited all 
moneys, notes, bonds and securities (except such notes or docu- 
ments as may be filed with suits or evidence, which shall be kept 
by the clerk of court), so soon as the same shall come into the 
hands of any sheriff or clerk of court; such deposits shall be re* 
movable, in whole or in part, only upon order of court. The- 
officer making such deposits shall make immediate and writt^en 
return to the court of the date and particulars thereof, to be filed 
in the cause in which the matter is i^ending, under penalties to 
be prescribed by law. 

Art. 134. There shall be a district attorney for the parish of 
Orleans, who shall possess the same qualifications and be elected 
in the same manner and for the same period of time as the district 
attorneys for other parishes, as provided by this Constitution. 

He shall receive a salary of one thousand dollars per annum 
and such fees as may be allowed by law; but no fee shall be 
allowed in criminal cases except on conviction. 



Constitufion of the State of Louisiana. 



He may appoint an assistant at a salary not to exceed fifteen 
hundred dollars per annum. 

Art. 135. There shall be in the city of Xew Orleans three 
city courts, one of which shall be located in that portion of the 
city on the right bank of the Mississippi river, i)resided over by 
judges having all the qualifications required for a district judge, 
and shall be elected by the qualified voters of the parish for the 
term of four years. They shall have exclusive and final jurisdic- 
tion over all sums not exceeding one hundred dollars, exclusive 
of interest. The General Assembly shall regulate the salaries, 
teri'itorial division of jurisdiction, the manner of executing their 
process, the fee bill and proceedings which shall govern them. 
They shall have authority to execute commissions, to take testi- 
mony and receive therefor such fees as may be allowed by law. 

The General Assembly may increase the number of city courts 
for said i^arish, not to exceed eight in all. Until otherwise pro- 
vided by law, each of said courts shall have one clerk, to be 
elected for the term of four years by the qualified voters of this 
parish, who shall receive a salary of twelve hundred dollars per 
annum, and no more, and whose qualifications, bond and duties 
shall be regulated by law. 

AiiT. 136. The General Assembly may provide for police 
or magistrates' courts; but such courts shall not be vested with 
jurisdiction beyond the enforcement of municipal ordinances or 
as committing magistrates. 

Art. 137.' There shall be one clerk for the Civil District 
Court and one for the Criminal District Court of the parish of 
Orleans. The former shall be ex-offi.cio clerk of the Court of 
Appeals of said i^arish. Said clerks shall be removable in the 
manner provided for the removal of sheriffs of said parish. The 
clerk of said Civil District Court shall receive an annual salary 
of three thousand six hundred dollars, and no more; and the clerk 
of the Criminal Court an annual salary of three thousand dollars, 
and no inore, both payable quarterly on their warrants. They 
shall be elected by the qualified voters of the parish for the term 
of four years. 

The amount and character of the bonds and qualification of 
the sureties to be furnished by said clerks shall be prescribed by 
law. 



38 Oonsfiiufion of the State of Louisiana. 

Art. 138. The Court of Appeals and one judge of the Civil 
and Criminial District Courts of the parish of Orleans shall 
appoint a minute clerk at an annual salary of not more than 
eighteen hundred dollars, whose duties shall be regulated bylaw. 
Each clerk of the court shall appoint, by and with the consent of 
the district court of which he is a clerk, such deputies as may be 
necessary to perform efficiently the duties of said office, at salaries 
to be fixed by law. He shall be responsible for the said deputies, 
and may require from each such security as he may deem suffi- 
cient to secure himself; and said deputies shall be removable at 
his pleasnre. 

Art. 139. There shall be a civil and a criminal shei-iff for 
the parish of Orleans. The civil sheriff shall be the executive 
officer of all civil courts, except city courts, and the criminal 
sheriff shall be the executive officer of the Criminal District 
Court. 

They shall attend the sittings, execute the writs and man- 
dates of their respective courts. They shall be elected by the 
voters of the parish of Orleans every four years. They shall be 
citizens of the State, residents and voters of the city of Xew 
Orleans, at least twenty-five years of age, and shall be removable 
each by the District Court of Avhich he is the executive officer, 
ui^ou proof after trial, without jury, of gross or continued neglect, 
incomi^etency or unlawful conduct, operating injury to court or 
any individual. The two district courts for the parish of Or 
leans shall immediately upon organization under this Constitu- 
tion, in joint session, adopt rules governing the lodging of com- 
plaints against and trial of such officers; and such rules once 
adopted shall not be changed except hj the UDanimous consent 
of all the judges composing said courts. 

Art. 140. The civil sheriff of the parish of Orleans shall 
receive such fees as the General Assembly may fix. He shall 
render monthly accounts, giving amounts and dates, number and 
title of causes wherein received or paid out, of all sums collected 
and disbursed by him, which shall be filed in the Civil District 
Court of said parish and form a j)art of its public records. 

He shall be responsible to the State for all profits of said 
office over ten thousand dollars per annum and shall settle with 
the State at least once a year in such manner as the General 
Assembly may i3rovide. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 39 

The criminal sheriff shall receive an annual salary of thirty- 
six hundred dollars, and no more. He shall receive no other 
compensation. He shall charge and collect for the State from 
parties convicted such fees and charges, as maybe fixed by law, 
and shall render monthly accounts of the same. 

Art. 141. Said sheriffs shall appoint, each with the consent 
and approval of the District Court which he serves, such a num- 
ber of deputies as the said court may find necessary for the proper 
expedition of the public business, at such salaries as may be fixed 
by law. Each sheriff shall be responsible for his deputies, may 
remove them at pleasure and fill vacancies with the approval of 
the court, and may exact from all deputies security in such 
manner and amount as such sheriff may deem necessary. 

Art. 142. The civil sheriff of said parish shall execute a 
bond with sureties, residents of said parish, conditioned for the 
lawful and faithful performance of the duties of his office, in the 
sum of fifty thousand dollars. The sureties shall be examined in 
open court by the judges of the Civil District Court for the 
parish of Orleans, and the questions and answers shall be reduced 
to writing and form a portion of the records of said court. 

A similar bond shall be executed by the criminal sheriff of 
said parish in the sum of ten thousand dollars, with sureties to 
be examined and approved as to solvency by the Criminal Dis- 
trict Court of said parish, as herein directed for the Civil Dis- 
trict Court of said parish in the case of the civil sheriff. 

Art. 143. There shall be one constable for each city court 
of the parish of Orleans, who shall be executive officer of such 
court. He shall be elected by the qualified voters of the parish 
of Orleans for the term of four years. The General Assembly 
shall define his qualifications and fix his compensation and du- 
ties, and shall assimilate the same so far as practicable to the 
provisions of this Constitution relating to the civil sheriff of said 
parish. The judges of the city courts shall sit en banc to exam- 
ine such bonds, try and remove constables and adopt rules regu- 
lating such trial and removal. They shall in such proceedings 
be governed so far as practicable by the provisions of this Con- 
stitution regulating the proceedings of the district courts of the 
parish of Orleans in the case of the sheriff's of said parish. 

Art. 144. There shall be a register of conveyances and a 



40 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

recorder of mortgages for the parish of Orleans, who shall be 
elected by the qualified voters of said parish every four years. 
The register of conveyances shall receive an annual salary of 
twenty-five hundred dollars, and no more, and said recorder of 
mortgages, an annual salary of four thousand dollars, and no 
more. The General Assembly shall regulate the qualifications 
and duties of said officers and the number of employes they shall 
appoint, and fix the salaries of such employes, not to exceed 
eighteen hundred dollars for each. 

Aitr. 145. The General Assembly, at its first session after 
the adoption of this Constitution, shall enact a fee-bill for the 
clerks of the various courts, including the city courts, sitting in 
Xew Orleans, and for the civil and criminal sheriffs, constables, 
register of conveyances and recorder of mortgages of said parish. 
In the same act provision shall be made for a system of stamps or 
stamped paper for the collection by the State, and not by said 
officers, of such fees and charges, so far as clerks of courts, regis- 
ter of conveyances and recorder of mortgages are concerned. 

Art. 14G. All fees and charges fixed by law for the various 
courts of the parish of Orleans, and for the register of convey- 
ances and recorder of mortgages of said parish shall enure to the 
State, and all sums realized therefrom shall be set aside and held 
as a special fund, out of which shall be paid by preference the 
judicial expenses of the parish of Orleans: provided^ that the 
State sliall never make any payment to any sheriff, clerk, register 
of conveyances or recorder of mortgages of the parish of Orleans, 
or any of their deputies, for salary or other expenses of their re- 
spective offices, except from the special fund provided for by this 
article, and any appropriation made contrary to this provision 
shall be null and void. 

Art. 147. There shall be one coroner for the parish of Orleans, 
who shall be elected every four years by the qualified electors of 
said parish, and whose duties shall be regulated by law. He 
shall be ex-officio city physician of the city of New Orleans, and 
receive an annual salary of five thousand dollars, and no more. 
He shall be a practicing physician of said city, and a graduate 
of the medical department of some university of respectable 
standing. He may appoint an assistant having the same qualifi- 
cations as hioiself, at an annual salary not exceeding three rhou- 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 41 

sand dollars. The salaries of both coroner and assistant to be 
paid by the parish of Orleans. 

The maintenance and support of prisoners confined in the 
parish of Orleans, upon charges or conviction for criminal 
offenses shall be under the control of the city of Kew Orleans. 

GENEEAL PROVISIONS. 

Art. 148. No person shall hold any office, State, parochial 
or municipal, or shall be permitted to vote at any election or act 
as a juror, who, in due course of law, shall have been convicted 
of treason, perjury, forgery, bribery or other crime punishable 
by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or who shall be under in- 
terdiction. 

Aet. 119. Members of the General Assembly and all officers, 
before they enter upon the duties of their office, shall take the 
following oath or affirmation: 

'^I (A. B.) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will sup- 
port the Constitution and laws of the United States and the 
Constitution and laws of this State; and that I will faithfully 
and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent 

upon me as • according to the best of my ability 

and understanding. So help me God.'' 

Art. 150. The seat of government shall be and remain at 
the city of Baton Eouge. 

The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption 
of this Constitution, shall make the necessary appropriations for 
the repair of the State House and for the transfer of the archives 
of the State to Baton Rouge; and the city council of Baton 
Rouge is hereby authorized to issue certificates of indebtedness, 
in such manner and form as to cover the subscription of thirty- 
five thousand dollars, tendered by the citizens and city council 
of said city to aid in rejjairing the capitol in said city; provided, 
the city of Baton Rouge shall pay into the State Treasury said 
amount of thirty-five thousand dollars before the contract for the 
repairs of the vState House be finally closed. 

Art. 151. Treason against the State shall consist only in levy- 
ing war against it, or adhering to its enemies, giving them aid 
and comfort. Xo person shall be convicted of treason except on 



42 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 



tlie testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on his 
confession in open court. 

Art. 152. All civil officers shall beremovableby an address 
of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General 
Assembly, except those whose removal is otherwise provided for 
by this Constitution. 

Art. 153. No member of Congress nor person holding or ex- 
ercising any office of trust or profit under the United States or 
either of them, or under any foreign power, shall be eligible as a 
member of the General Assembly, or hold or exercise any office 
of trust or profit under the State. 

Art. 154. The laws, public records and the judicial and 
legislative written proceedings of the State shall be promulgated, 
preserved and conducted in the Eaglish language, but the Gen- 
eral Assembly may provide for the pulication of the laws in the 
French language, and prescribe that judicial advertisements in 
certain designated cities and parishes shall also be made in that 
language. 

Art. 155. No expost facto law, nor any law impairing the 
obligations of contracts, shall be passed, nor vested rights be 
divested, unless for purposes of public utility and for ade<iuate 
compensation j)reviously made. 

Art. 156. Private property shall not be taken nor damaged 
for public purposes without just and adequate compensation be- 
ing first paid. 

Art. 157. No power of suspending the laws of this State 
shall be exercised unless by the General Assembly or its au- 
thority. 

Art. 158. The General Assembly shall provide by law for 
change of venue in civil and criminal cases. 

Art. 159. No person shall hold or exercise, at the same 
time, more than one office of trustor profit, except that of justice 
of the peace or notary public. 

Art. 160. The General Assembly may determine the mode 
of filling vacancies in all offices for Avhich provision is not made 
in this Constitution. 

Art. 161. All officers shall continue to discharge the duties 
of their offices until their successors shall have been inducted 
into office, except in cases of impeachment or suspension. 



CouRtiiution of iJie Sio,te of Louisiana. 43 

Art. 162. The military shall be in subordination to the 
civil x:)Owei\ and no soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered 
in any house without the consent of its owner. 

Art. 163. The General Assembly shall make it obligatory 
upon each parish to support all infirm, sick and disabled pau- 
pers residing within its limits; provided^ that in every municipal 
corporation in a parish where the i^owers of the police jury do 
not extend, the said corporation shall support its own infirm, 
sick and disabled paupers. 

Art. 164. Xo soldier, sailor or marine in military or naval 
service of the United States shall hereafter acquire a domicile in 
in this State by reason of being stationed or doing duty in the 
same. 

Art. 165. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to 
pass such laws as may be proper and necessary to decide differ- 
ences by arbitration. 

Art. 166. The power of the courts to punish for contempt 
shall be limited by law. 

Art. 167. The General Assembly shall have authority to 
grant lottery charters or privileges; provided, each charter or 
privilege shall pa\" not less than forty thousand dollars per 
annum in money into the treasury of the State; and provided 
further, that all charters shall cease and exj)ire on the first of 
January. 1895, from which time all lotteries are prohibited in 
the State. 

The forty thousand dollars per annum now provided by law 
to be paid by the Louisiana State Lottery Company, according 
to the provisions of its charter, granted in the year 1868, shall 
belong to the Charity Hospital of New Orleans, and the charter 
of said company is recognized as a contract binding on the State 
for the period therein specified, except its monopoly clause, which 
is hereby abrogated, and all laws contrary to the provisions of 
this article are hereby declared null and void; provided^ said 
company shall file a written renunciation of all its monopoly 
features in the office of the Secretary of State within sixty days 
after the ratification of this Constitution. 

Of the additional sums raised by licenses on lotteries, the hos- 
pital at Shreveport shall receive ten thousand dollars annuallj^, 
and the remaining sum shall be divided each year among the 
several parishes in the State for the benefit of their schools. 



44 Constitution of the State of Louisiana, 

Art. 168. lu all proceedings for iDclictmeuts and libel, the 
truth thereof may be given in evidence. The jury in all criminal 
cases shall be the judges of the law and the facts on the question 
of guilt or innocence, having been charged as to the law appli- 
cable to the case by the presiding judge. 

Art. 169. Xo officer whose salary is fixed by the Consti- 
tution shall be allowed any fees or X3erquisities of office, except 
where otherwise provided for by this Constitution. 

Art. 170. The regulation of the sale of alcoholic or spirit- 
uous liquors is declared a police regulation, and the General 
Assembly may enact laws regulating their sale and use. 

Art. 171. ^o person who, at any time, may have been a 
collector of taxes, whether State, parish or municipal, or who 
may have been otherwise intrusted Avith public money or any 
portion thereof, sliall be eligible to the General Assembly or to 
any office of honor, profit or trust under the State government, 
or any parish or municipality thereof, until he shall have 
obtained a discharge for the amount of such collections and for 
all public moneys with which he may have been intrusted. 

Art. 172. Gambling is declared to be a vice, and the 
General Assembly shall enact laws for its suppression. 

Art. 173. Any person who shall directly or indirectly offer 
or give any sum or sums of money, bribe, present, reward, promise 
or any other thing to any officer, State, parochial or municipal, 
or to any member or officer of the General Assembly with the 
intent to induce or influence such officer or member of the Gen- 
eral Assembly to appoint any person to office, to vote or exercise 
any power in him vested, or to perform any duty of him re- 
quired, with partiality or favor, the person giving, or offering to 
give, or the officer or member of the General Assembly so re- 
ceiving any money, bribe, present, reward, promise, contract, 
obligation or security, with the intent or for the purpose or con- 
sideration aforesaid, shall be guilty of bribery, and on being 
found guilty thereof by any court of competent jurisdiction, or 
by either house of the General Assembly of which he may be a 
member or officer, shall be forever disqualified from holding any 
office, State, parochial or municipal, and shall be forever ineligi- 
ble to a seat in the General Assembly; provided, that this shall 



Constitution of the State of Louisunia. 45 

not to be coastrued as to prevent the General Assembly from 
enacting additional penalties. 

Art. 174. Any person may be compelled to testify in any 
lawful proceeding against any one who may be charged with 
having committed the offense of bribery, and shall not be per- 
mitted to withhold his testimony upon the ground that it may 
criminate him or subject him to public infamy; but such testi- 
mony shall not afterwards be used agaiust him in any judicial 
proceedings, except for perjury in giving such testimony. 

Art. 175. The General Assembly shall, at its first session, 
pass laws to protect laborers on buildings, streets, roads, rail- 
roads, canals and other similar works, against the failure of con- 
tractors and sub-contractors to pay their current wages when due, 
and to make the corporation, company or individual for whose 
benefit the work is done, responsible for their ultimate payment. 

Art. 176. Xo mortgage or privilege on immovable prop 
erty shall affect third persons, unless recorded or registered in 
the j)arish where the proiDcrty is situated, in the manner and 
within the time as is now or may be prescribed by law, except 
privileges for expenses of last illness, and privileges for taxes, 
State, parish or municipal; provided^ such privileges shall lapse 
in three years. 

Art. 177. Privileges on movable property shall exist with- 
out registration for the same, except in such cases as the General 
Assembly may prescribe by law, after the adoption of this Con- 
stitution. 

Art. 178. The General Assembly shall x^rovide for the in- 
terest of State medicine in all its departments; for the protection 
of the people from unqualified practitioners of medicine; for pro- 
tecting confidential communications made to medical men by 
their patients while under professional treatment, and for the 
purpose of such treatment; for the establishment and main- 
tenance of a State Board of Health. 

Art. 179. The General Assembly shall create a Bureau of 
Agriculture, define its objects, designate its officers and fix 
their salaries, at such time as the financial condition of the State 
may warrant them, in their judgment, in making such expendi- 
tures; provided^ tliat such expenditures never exceed ten thousand 
dollars per annum. 



46 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

THE :n^ew canal shell eoad. 

Art. 180. The N^ew Basin Canal and Shell Eoad, and their 
appurtenances, shall not be leased or alienated. 

The General Assembly, at its first session after the ratifica- 
tion of this Constitution, shall provide by law for a superintend- 
ent, to be appointed by the Governor upon the recommendation 
of the captains and owners of vessels plying in, and of merchants 
doing busines on, said canal, to manage the same, and shall enact 
laws for the regulation, maintenance and management of said 
canal and shell road; provided, dues shall not exceed ten cents 
per ton on the measurement tonnage of all vessels entering there- 
in. The depth of water in the canal basin, and on the bar at the 
mouth, shall be kept at the depth of at least eight feet; provided, 
that all expenses of improving and maintaining said canal, shell 
road and appurtenances, including the wages and salaries of em- 
ployes, shall be paid out of the revenues thereof, and not other- 
wise. 

MILITIA. 

Art. 181. The General Assembly shall have authority to 
provide by law how the militia of this State shall be organized, 
officered, trained, armed and equipped, and of whom it shall 
consist. 

Art. 182. The officers and men of the militia and volun- 
teer forces shall receive no pay, rations and emoluments when 
not in active service by authority of the State. 

Art. 183. The General Assembly may exemj^t from mili- 
tary services those who belong to religious societies whose tenets, 
forbid them to bear arms; provided, a money equivalent for these 
services shall be exacted. The Governor shall have power to 
call the militia into active service for the preservation of law 
and order, or when the public service may require it; provided, 
that the police force of any city, town or parish, shall not be or- 
ganized or used as part of the State militia. 

SUFFRAGE AND ELECTION. 

Art. 184. In all elections by the people the electors shall 
vote by ballot; and in all elections by persons in a representative 
capacity the vote shall be be viva voee. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 47 

Art. 185. Every male citizen of the United States, and 
every male person of foreign birth who has been naturalized, or 
who may have legallj^ declared his intention to become a citizen 
of the United States before he offers to vote, w^ho is twenty-one 
years old or upwards, possessing the following qualificationSj 
shall be an elector and shall be entitled to vote at any election by 
the people, except as hereinafter provided: 

1. He shall be an actual resident of the State at least one 
year next preceding the election at which he offers to vote. 

2. He shall be an actual resident of the parish in which he 
offers to vote at least six months next preceding the election. 

8. He shall be an actual resident of the ward or precinct in 
which he offers to vote at least thirty days next preceding the 
election. 

Art. 186. The General Assembly shall provide the law for 
the proper enforcement of the provisions of the foregoing article; 
2)rovi(le(l. that in the parish of Orleans there shall be a supervisor 
of regist]\^tiou, who shall be appointed by the Governor, bj^ and 
with the ad\'ice and consent of the Senate, whose term of office 
shall be for a period of four years, and whose salary, qualifica- 
tions and duties shall be prescribed by law. And the General 
Assembly may provide for the registration of voters in the other 
parishes. 

Art. 187. The following persons shall not be permitted to 
register, vote or hold any office or appointment of honor, profit 
or trust in this State. 

Those who shall have been convicted for treason, embezzle- 
ment of public funds, malfeasance in office, larceny, bribery, 
illegal voting, or other crime punishable by hard labor or impri- 
sonment in the Penitentiary, idiots and insane persons. 

Art. 188. 'No qualification of any kind of suffrage or office, 
nor any restraint upon the same, on account of race, color or 
previous condition shall be made by law. 

Art. 189. Electors shall, in all cases except treason, felony 
or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their 
attendance on elections, and in going to and returning from the 
same. 

Art. 190. The General Assembly shall by law forbid the 



48 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

giviDgor selling of intoxicating drinks on the day of election, 
within one mile of precincts, at any election held within the State. 

Art. 191. Until otherwise provided by law, the general 
State election shall be held once every four years on the Tuesday 
next following the third Monday in April. 

Presidential electors and members of Congress shall be chosen 
or elected in the manner at the time prescribed by law. 

Art. 192. Parochial and municipal elections in the cities 
of New Orleans and Shreveport shall be held on the same day as 
the general State election, and not oftener than once in four 
years. 

Art. 193. For the purpose of voting, no persons shall be 
deemed to have gained a residence, by reason of his presence, or 
lost it by reason of his absence, while employed in the seivice, 
either civil or military, of this State or of the United States; 
nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of the State or 
the United States; or of the high seas, nor while a student of any 
institution of learning. 

Art. 194. The General Assembly shall provide by law for 
the trial and determination of contested elections of all public 
officers, whether State, judicial, parochial or municipal. 

Art. 195. No person shall be eligible to any office, State, 
judicial, parochial, municipal or ward, who is not a citizen of 
this State and a duly qualified elector of the State, judicial dis- 
trict, parish, municipality or ward wherein the functions of said 
office are to be exercised. And whenever any officer. State, ju- 
dicial, parochial, municipal or ward, may change his residence 
from this State, or from the district, parish, municipality or 
ward in which he holds such office, the same shall thereby be 
vacated, any declaration of retention of domicile to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 

IMPEACHMENT AND REMOVALS FROM OFFICE. 
Art. ]96. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary 
of State, Auditor, Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintenent 
of Public Education and the judges of all the courts of record in 
this State shall be liable to impeachment for high crimes and 
misdemeanors, for nonfeasance or malfeasance in office, for in- 
competency, for corruption, favoritism, extortion or oppression 
in office, or for gross miscQuduct or habitual drunkenness. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 49 

Art. 197. The House of Eepreseiitatives shall have the 
sole power of impeachment. All inipeachments shall be tried by 
the Senate; when setting for that purpose, the Senators shall be 
upon oath or affirmation, and no person shall be convicted with- 
out the concurrence of two- thirds of the Senators present. 
When the Governor of the State is on trial, the Chief Justice or 
the Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside. 

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall extend only to re- 
moval from office and disqualification from holding office of 
honor, trust or profit under the State, but the party, whether 
convicted or acquitted, shall nevertheless be liable to prosecu- 
tion, trial and punishment according to law. 

Art. 198. All officers against Avhom articles of impeach- 
ment may be preferred shall be suspended from the exercise of 
the functions of their office during the pendency of such impeach- 
ment, and, except in case of the impeachment of the Governor 
the appointing power shall make a provisional appointment to 
replace any suspended officer until the decision of the impeach- 
ment. 

Art. 199. For any reasonable cause the Governor shall 
remove anj^ officer on the address of two- thirds of the members 
elected to each house of the General Assembly. In every such 
case, the cause or causes for which such removal may be required 
shall be stated at length in the address and inserted in the 
journal of each house. 

Art. 200. For any of the causes specified in article 196, 
judges of the courts of appeal of the district courts throughout 
the State and of the city courts of the parish of Orleans may be re- 
moved from office by judgment of the Supreme Court of this 
State, in a suit instituted by the Attorney General or a district 
attorney in the name of the State, on his relation. The Supreme 
Court is hereby vested with original jurisdiction to try such 
causes; and it is hereby made the duty of the Attorney General 
or of any district attorney to institute such suit on the written 
request and information of fifty citizens and taxpayers residing 
within the territoral limits of the district or circuit over which 
the judge against whom the suit is brought exercises the func- 
tions of his office. Such suits shall be tried, after citation and 
ten days' delay for answering, in preference to all other suits, 



50 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

and wherever the court may be sitting; but the pendency of 
such suit shall not operate a suspension from office. In all 
cases where the officer sued, as above directed, shall be ac- 
quitted, judgment shall be rendered jointly and in solido against 
the citizens signing the request, for all costs of the suit. 

Art. 201. For any of the causes enumerated in article 196, 
district attorneys, clerks of courts, sheriffs, coroners, recorders, 
justices of the peace and all other parish, municipal and ward 
officers shall be removed by judgment of the district court of 
the domicile of such officer (in the parish of Orleans the Civil 
District Court), and it shall be the duty of the district attorney, 
except when the suit is to be brought against himself, to institute 
suit in the manner directed in article 2U0, on the written request 
and information of twenty-five resident citizens and tax-payers 
in the case of district, parish or municipal officers, and of ten 
resident citizens and taxpayers in the case of ward officers. Such 
suit should be brought against a district attorney by the district 
attorney of an adjoining district, or by, counsel appointed by the 
judge for that purpose. In all such cases the defendant, the 
State and the citizens and taxpayers on whose information and 
at whose request such suit was broughl", or any one of them, 
shall have the right to appeal, both on tlie law aud the facts, 
from the judgment of the court. In all cases where the officer 
sued, as above directed, shall be acquitted, judgment shall be 
rendered jointly and in solido against the citizens signing the 
requests, for all costs of the suit. 

In cases against district attorneys, clerks, sheriffs and 
recorders, the appeal shall be to the Supreme Court, and in cases 
against all other officers the appeal shall be in the court of ap- 
peal to the proper circuit 

Such appeals shall be returnable within ten days to the ap- 
pellate court, wherever it may be sitting or wherever it may 
hold its next session, and may be transferred by order of the 
judges of said court to another parish within their circuit; and 
such appeals shall be tried by preference over all others. In case 
of the refusal or neglect of the district attorney or Attorney 
General to institute and prosecute any suit provided for in this 
and the preceding article, the citizens and taxpayers making 
the request, or any one of them, shall have the right by man- 
damus to compel him to perform such duty. 



Constitution of Ike State of Louisiana. 51 

EEVENUE AIS^D TAXATIOK 

Art. 202. The taxing x^ower may be exercised by the Gen- 
eral Assembly for State purposes, and by parishes and municipal 
corporations, under authority granted to them by the General 
Assembly, for parish and municipal purj^oses. 

Airr. 203. Taxation shall be equal and unifoi-m throughout 
the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and all 
property shall be taxed in pi-oportion to its value, to be ascer- 
tained as directed by law; j^roi??V?<^r/, the assessment of all prop- 
erty shall never exceed the actual casli value thereof; and pro- 
vided further, that the taxpayers shall have the right of testing 
the correctness of their assessments before the courts of justice. 
In order to arrive at this equality and nniformity the General 
Assembly shall, at its first session after the adoption of this^ 
Constitution, provide a system of equality and uniformity in 
assessments based uj^on the relative value of property in the 
different portions of the State. The valuations put upon prop- 
erty for the purposes of State taxation shall be taken as the 
proper valuation for x>i^rposes of local taxation in every snb- 
di vision of the State. 

Art. 204. The taxing power shall be exercised only to carry 
on and maintain the government of the State and the public 
institutions thereof, to educate the children of the State, to pay 
the principal and interest of the i^ublic debt, to suppress insur- 
rection, repel invasion or defend the State in time of war, to 
supply the citizens of the State who lost a limb or limbs in the 
military service of the Confederate States with substantial arti- 
ficial limbs during life and for levee purposes, as hereinafter 
provided. 

Art. 20r). The power to tax corporations and corporate 
property shall never be surrendered nor suspended by act of the 
General Assembly. 

Art. 206. The General Assembly may levy a license tax, 
and in such case shall graduate the amount of such tax to be 
collected from the persons j)ursuing the several trades, profes- 
sions, vocations and callings. All persons, association of per- 
sons and corporations pursuing any trade, profession, business 
or calling may be rendered liable to such tax, except clerks, 
laborers, clergymen, school teachers, those engaged in mechani- 



52 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

cal, agricultural, horticultural and miuiug pursuits, aud manu- 
facturers other than those of distilled, alcoholic or malt liquors, 
tobacco and cigars and cotton seed oil. No political corporation 
shall impose a greater license tax than is imposed by the General 
Assembly for State purposes. 

Art. 207. The following property shall be exemi)t from taxa- 
tion, and no other, viz: All public x^roperty, places of religious 
worship or burial, all charitable institutions, all buildings and 
property used exclusively for colleges and other school purposes, 
the real and personal estate of any public library and that of 
any other library association used by or connected with such 
library, all books and philosophical apparatus, and all painting 
and statuary of any comi^any or association kept in a public 
hall; provided^ the property so exempted be not used or leased 
for purposes of private or corporate profit and income. There 
shall also be exemx)t from taxation household property to the 
value of five hundi-ed dollars. There shall also be exempt from 
taxation and license for a period of ten years from the adoption 
of this Constitution, the capital, machinery and other property 
employed in the manufacture of textile fabrics, leather, shoes, 
harness, saddlery, hats, flour, machinery, agricultural imple- 
ments, and furniture and other article of wood, marble or stone; 
soap, stationery, ink and paper, boat building and chocolate; 
provided^ that uot less than five hands are employed in any one 
factor 3'. 

Art. 208. The General Assembly shall levy an pnnual poll- 
tax for the maintenance of the ]3ublic schools, upon every male 
inhabitant in the State over the age of twenty-one years, which 
shall never be less than one dollar nor exceed one dollar and a 
half per capita, and the General Assembly shall pass laws to en- 
force the payment of said tax. 

Art. 209. The State tax on property for all purposes what- 
ever, including expenses of government, schools, levees and in- 
terest shall not exceed in any one year six mills on the dollar of 
its assessed valuation, if the ordinance regarding the bonded 
debt of the State is adopted and ratified by the people; and if 
said ordinance is not adopted and ratified by the people, said 
State tax for all purposes aforesaid shall not exceed in any one year 
five mills on the dollar of the assessed valuation of the property; 
and no parish or municipal tax for all purposes whatsoever shall 



Constitution of the State of Loimiaiut. 53 

exceed ten mills on the dollar of valuation; provided, that for the 
purpose of erecting and constructing public buildiugs, bridges 
and works of public improvement in parishes and municipali- 
ties, the rates of taxation herein limited may be increased when 
the rate of such increase nnd the purpose for which it is intended 
shall have been submitted to a vote of the property taxpayers of 
such parish or municipality entitled to a vote under the election 
laws of the State, and a majority of same voting at such election 
shall have voted therefor. 

Art. 210. There shall be no forfeiture of proi^erty for the 
non-payment of taxes, State, levee district, parochial or munici- 
pal, but at the expiration of the year in which they are due the 
collector shall, without suit, and after giviug notice to the delin- 
quent in the manner to be provided by law (which shall not be 
by publication except in cases of unknown owner) advertise for 
sale the property on which the taxes are due in the manner pro- 
vided for judicial sales, and on the day of sale he shall sell such 
portion of the property as the debtor shall point out. and. in 
case the debtor shall not point out sufficient i^roiDcrty, the col- 
lector shall at once and without further delay sell the least quan- 
tity of property which any bidder will buy for the amount of 
the taxes, interest and costs. The sale shall be without appraise- 
ment, and the property sold shall be redeemable at any time for 
th^ space of one year, by paying the price given, with twentj^ 
per cent, and costs added. Xo sale of property for taxes shall be 
annulled for any informality in the proceedings until the price 
paid, with ten per cent, interest be tendered to the purchaser. 
All deeds of sale made, or that may be made, by collectors of 
taxes, shall be received by courts in evidence as prima facie 
valid sales. 

Art. 211. The taxes shall be designated by the year in 
which it is collectible, and the tax on movable property shall be 
collected in the year in which the assessment is made. 

Art. 212. The Legislature shall pass no law postponing the 
payment of taxes, except in case of overflow, general conflagra- 
tion, general destruction of the crops, or other public calamity. 

Art. 213. A levee system shall be maintained in the State, 
and a tax not to exceed one mill may be levied annually on all 
property subject to taxation, and shall be applied exclusively to 
the maintenance and repairs of levees. 



51 Constltittion of the State of Louisiana. 

Art. 2L4. The Geueral Assembly may divide the State 
into levee districts and provide for the appointment or election 
of levee commissioners in said districts, who shall, in the method 
and manner to be i^rovided by law, have snpervision of the erec- 
tion, repairs and maintenance of the levees in said districts; to 
that effect it may levy a tax not to exceed five mills on the taxa- 
able property situated within the alluvial portions of said dis- 
tricts subject to overflow. 

Art. 215. The provisions of the above two articles shall 
cease to have effect whenever the Federal government shall as- 
sume permanent control and provide the ways and means for the 
maintenance of levees in this State. The Federal government is 
authorized to make such geological, topographical, hydrograpi- 
cal and hydrometrical surveys and investigations within the 
State as may be necessary to carry into effect the act of Congress 
to provide for the appointment of a Mississippi River Commission 
for the improvement of said river, from the head of the Passes 
near its mouth to the headwaters, and to construct and protect 
such public works and improvements as may be ordered by Con- 
gress under the provisions of said act. 

Art. 216. The General i^ssembly shall have power, with 
the concurrence of an adjacent State or States to create levee dis- 
tricts composed of territory partly in this State and partly in 
adjacent State or States, and the levee commissioners for such 
district or districts shall possess all the powers provided by 
article 214 of the Constitution. 

Art. 217. Corporations, companies or associations organ- 
ized or domiciled out of the State, but doing business herein, 
may be licensed by a mode different from that provided for home 
corxDOrations or companies; provided^ said different mode of license 
shall be uniform, upon a graduated system, as to all such corpo- 
rations, companies or associations that transact the same kind 
of business. 

Art. 218. All the articles and provisions of this Constitu- 
tion regulating and relating to the collection of State taxes and 
tax sales shall also apply to and regulate the collection of par- 
ish, district and municipal taxes. 

HOMESTEADS AND EXEMPTIONS. 

Art. 219. There shall be exempt from seizure and sale by any 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 55 

process whatever, except as herein provided, the ''homesteads" 
bona fide owned by the debtor and occupied by him, consisting 
of lands, buildings and appurtenances, whether rural or urban, 
of every head of a family, or person having a mother or father, 
a person or j)ersons dependent on him or her for support; also 
one work-horse, one wagon or cart, one yoke of oxen, two cows 
and calves, twenty-five head of hogs, or one thousand pounds of 
bacon or its equivalent in pork, whether these exempted objects 
be attached to a homestead or not; and on a farm the necessary 
quantity of corn and fodder for the current year, and the neces- 
sary farming implements to the value of two thousand dollars. 

Provided, that in case the homestead exceeds two thousand 
dollars in value, the beneficiary shall be entitled to that amount 
in case a sale of the hom(;stead under any legal process realizes 
more than that sum. 

i^o husband shall have the benefit of a homestead whose wife 
owns and is in the actual enjoyment of i3roi)erty or means to the 
amount of two thousand dollars. 

Such exemptions, to be valid, shall be set apart and reg- 
istered as shall be provided by law. The benefit of this provision 
may be claimed by the surviving spouse, or minor child or 
children of a deceased beneficiary, if in indigent circumstances. 

Art. 220. Laws shall be i^assed as early as practicable, for 
the setting apart, valuation and registration of property claimed 
as a homestead. Eights to homesteads, or exemptions under 
laws or contracts, or for debts existing at the time of the adoption 
of this Constitution, shall not be impared, repealed or affected 
by any provision of this Constitution, or any laws passed in pur- 
suance thereof. No court or ministerial officer of this State shall 
ever have jurisdiction or authority to enforce any judgment, exe- 
cution or decree against the property set apart for a homestead, 
including such improvements as may be made thereon from time 
to time; provided, the property herein declared to be exempt 
shall not exceed in value two thousand dollars. This exemption 
shall not apply to the following cases, to- wit: 

1. For the purchase price of said property, or anj- part 
thereof. 

2. For labor and material furnished for building, repairing 
or improving homesteads. 



56 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

3. For liabilities incurred by any public officer or fiduciary, 
or any attorney-at-law, for money collected or received on 
deposit. 

4. For lawful claiuis for taxes or assessments. 

Art. 221. The owner of a homestead shall at any time have 
the right to supplement his exemption by adding to an amount 
already set apart, which is less than the whole amount and exemp- 
tion herein allowed, sufficient to make his homestead and exemp- 
tion equal to the whole amount allowed by this Constitution. 

Art. 222. The homestead shall not be susceptible of mort- 
gage, except for the purchase price, labor and material furnished 
for the building, repairing or improving homestead; nor shall 
any renunciation or waiver of homestead rights or exemptions be 
valid. The right to sell any property which shall be recorded as 
a homestead shall be preserved, but no sale shall destroy or im- 
pair any rights of creditors therein. 

Art. 223. Equitable laws shall be paased for the protection 
of creditors against the fraudulent claims of debtors, for the 
punishment of fraud, and for reaching property and funds of the 
debtor concealed from the creditor. 

PUBLIC editcatio:n^. 

Art. 224. There shall be free public schools established by 
the General Assembly throughout the State for the education of 
all the children of the State between the ages of six and eighteen 
years; and the General Assembly shall provide for their estab- 
lishment, maintenance and support by taxation, or otherwise, 
and all moneys so raised, except the poll-tax, shall be distributed 
to each parish in proportion to the number of children between 
the ages of six and eighteen years. 

Art. 22.5. There shall be elected by the qualified electors 
of the State a Superintendent of Public Education, who shall 
hold his office for the term of four years, and until his successor 
is qualified. His duties shall be prescribed by law and he shall 
receive an annual salary of two thousand dollars. The aggregate 
annual expenses of his office, including his salary, shall not ex- 
ceed the sum of three thousand dollars. The General Assembly 
shall provide for the appointment of parish boards of i3ublic 
education for the different parishes. 

The parish boards may appoint a parish superintendent of 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 57 

public schools in tlieir respective parishes, who shall be ex-officio 
secretary of the parish board, and whose salary for his double 
functions shall not exceed two hundred dollars annually, except 
that in the parish of Orleans the salary of the parish superin- 
tendent shall be fixed by the General Assembly, to be paid out of 
the public fund accruing to each parish respectively. 

Art. 226. The general exercises in the public schools shall be 
conducted in the English language and the elementary branches 
taught therein 5 provided, that these elementary branches may be 
also taught in the French language in those parishes in the State 
or localities in said parishes where the French language pre- 
dominates, if no additional expense is incurred thereby. 

Art. 227. The funds derived from the collection of the poll- 
tax shall be applied exclusively to the maintenance of the public 
schools as organized under this Constitution, and shall be applied 
exclusively to the support of the public schools in the parish in 
which the same shall be collected, and shall be accounted for and 
paid by the collecting officers directly to the competent school 
authorities of each parish. 

Art. 228. No funds raised for the support of the public 
schools of the State shall be appropriated to or used for the su]3- 
port of any sectarian schools. 

Art. 229. The school fund of this State shall consist of: 

1. The proceeds of taxation for school purposes, as provided 
in this Constitution. 

2. The interest on the proceeds of all public lands hereto- 
fore granted by the United States for the use and support of the 
public schools. 

3. Of lands and other property which may hereafter be 
bequeathed, granted or donated to the State, or generally for 
school purposes. 

4. All funds or property, other than unimproved lands, 
bequeathed or granted to the State, not designated for other 
purposes. 

5. The proceeds of vacant estates falling under the law to 
the State of Louisiana. 

The Legislature may appropriate to the same fund the pro- 
ceeds, in whole or in part, of public lands not designated for any 



58 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

other purpose, and shall provide that every parish may levy 
a tax for the public schools therein, which shall not exceed the 
State tax; provided, that with such a tax th6 whole amount of 
parish taxes shall not exceed the limits of parish taxation fixed 
by this Constitution. 

COlSrCEENING A STATE TJNIVEESITY. 

AnT. 230. The University of Louisiana, as at present estab- 
lished and located at New Orleans, is hereby recognized in its 
three departments, to-wit, the law, the medical and the acade- 
mical departments, to be governed and controlled by appropriate 
faculties. 

The General Assembly shall, from time to time, make snch 
provision for the proper government, maintenance and support 
of said State University of Louisiana, and all the department^ 
thereof, as the public necessities and well-being of the people of 
the State of Louisiana may require, not to exceed ten thousand 
dollars annually. 

The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechan- 
ical College, now established and located in the city of Baton 
Eouge, is hereby recognized, and all revenues derived and to be 
derived from the sale of land or land scrip, donated by the 
United States to the State of Louisiana, for the use of a seminary 
of learning and mechanical and agricultural college, shall be ap- 
propriated exclusively to the maintenance and support of said 
L^niversity and Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the 
General Assembly shall, from time to time, make such additional 
approiDriations for the maintenance and support of said Louisiana 
State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College as 
the public necessities and the well-being of the State of Louisiana 
may require, not to exceed ten thousand dollars annually. 

Art. 231. The General Assembly shall also establish in the 
city of New Orleans a university for the education of persons of 
color, provide for its proper government, and shall make an an- 
nual appropriation of not less than five thousand dollars nor 
more than ten thousand dollars for its maintenance aod support. 

Art. 232. Women over twenty-one years of age shall be 
eligible to any office of control or management under the school 
laws of this State. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 59 



THE FEEE SCHOOL, SEMIl^AEY, A:N"D AGEICULTUEAL 
AXD MECHANICAL COLLEGE FUNDS. 

Art. 233. The debt due by the State to the Free School 
Fund is hereby declared to be thesnmof one million one hundred 
and thirty thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven dollars and 
fifty-one cents in principal, and shall be placed on the books of 
the Auditor and Treasurer to the credit of the several townships 
entitled to the same; the said principal being the proceeds of the 
sales of lands heretofore granted by the United States for the use 
and support of the free public schools, which amount shall be 
held by the State as a loan, and shall be and remain a perpetual 
fund on which the State shall pay an annual interest of four per 
cent, from the first day of January, 1880; and that said interest 
shall be paid to the several townships in the State entitled to the 
same, in accordance with the act of Congress, No. Q>S^ approved 
February 15, 1843; and the bonds of the State heretofore issued 
belonging to said fund, and sold under act of the General Assem- 
bly, No. 81, of 1872, are hereby declared null and void, and the 
General Assembly shall make no provision for their payment, 
and may cause them to be destroyed. 

The debt due by the State to the Seminary Fund is hereby 
declared to be one hundred and thirty-six thousand dollars, 
being the pi-oceeds of the sale of lands heretofore granted by 
the United States to the State for the use of a seminary of 
learning, and said amount shall be placed to the credit of said 
fund on the books of the Auditor and Treasurer of the State as 
alperpetual loan, and the State shall pay an annual interest of 
four per ceiit. on said amount from January 1, 1880, for the use 
of said seminary of learning; and the consolidated bonds of the 
State now held for use of said fund shall be null and void after 
the first day of January, 1880, and the General Assembly shall 
never make any provision for their iDayment, and they shall be 
destroyed in such manner as the General Assembly shall direct. 

The debt due by the State to the Agricultural and Mechani- 
cal College Fund is hereby declared to be the sum of one hundred 
and eighty-two thousand three hundred and thirteen dollars 
and three cents, being the proceeds of the sales of lands and 
land scrip heretofore granted by the United States to this State 



60 Consiitution of the State of Louisiana. 

for the use of a college for the benefit of agriculture, and the 
mechanic arts; said amounts shall be placed to the credit of said 
fund on the books of the Auditor and Treasurer of the State as 
a perpetual loan, and the State shall pay an annual interest of 
five per cent, on said amount from January 1, 1880, for the use 
of said Agricultural and Mechanical College; the consolidated 
bonds of the State now held by the State for the use of said 
fund shall be null and void after the first day of January, 1880. 
and the General Assembly shall never make any provision for 
their payment, and they shall be destroyed in such manner as 
the General Assembly may direct. 

The interest provided for by this article shall be paid out of 
any tax that may be levied and collected for the general pur- 
poses of public education. 

COEPOKATIONS AND COEPOEATE EIGHTS. 

Art. 234. The General Assembly shall not remit the for- 
feiture of the charter of any corporation now existing, nor re- 
uew, alter or amend the same, nor pass any general or special 
law for the benefit of such corporation, except upon the condition 
that such corporation shall thereafter hold its charter subject to 
the provisions of this Constitution. 

Art. 235. The exercise of the police power of the State 
shall never be abridged nor so construed as to permit corpora- 
tions to conduct their business in such manner as to infringe the 
equal rights of individuals or the general well-being of the State. 

Art. 236. 'No foreign corporation shall do any -business in 
this State without having one or more known places of business 
and an authorized agent or agents in the State upon whom 
process may be served. 

Art. 237. No corporation shall engage in any business other 
than that expressly authorized in its charter or incidental there- 
to, nor shall it take or hold any real estate for a longer period 
than ten years, except such as may be necessary and proper for 
its legitimate business or purposes. 

Art. 238. No corporation shall issue stock nor bonds, except 
lor labor done or money or property actually received, and all 



Constihiiion of the State of Louisiana. 61 

fictitious issues of stock shall be void, and auy corporation issu- 
ing such fictitious stock shall forfeit its charter. 

Art. 239. The stock shall not be increased, except in pur- 
suance of general laws, nor without consent of persons holding 
the larger amount in value of the stock, first obtained at a meet- 
ing of stockholders to be held after thirty days' notice given in 
pursuance of law. 

Art. 240. The term corporation, as used in this Constitu- 
tion, shall be construed to include all joint stock companies or 
associations having any power or privileges not possessed bj^ in- 
dividuals or partnerships. 

Art. 241. It shall be crime, the nature and punishment of 
which shall be prescribed by law, for any president, director, 
manager, cashier, or other officer or owner of any private or 
pubUc bank or banking institution to assent to the reception of 
deposits, or the creation of debts by such banking institution, 
after he shall have had knowledge of the fact that it is insolvent 
or in failing circumstances; any such officer, agent or manager 
shall be individually responsible for such deposits so received 
and all such debts so created with his assent. 

Art. 242. The General Assembly shall have power to enact 
general laws authorizing the parochial or municipal authorities 
of the State, under certain circumstances, by a vote of the major- 
ity of the property taxpayers in numbers and in value to levy 
special taxes in aid of public improvements or railway enter- 
prises; provided, that such tax shall not exceed the rate of five 
mills per annum nor extend for a longer period than ten years. 

Art. 243. Any railroad corporation or association organ- 
ized for the purpose shall have the right to construct and oper- 
ate a railroad between any points within this State, and connect 
at the State line with railroads of other States. Every railroad 
company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect 
with or cross any other railroad, and shall receive and trans- 
port .each the other's passengers, tonnage and cars, loaded or 
empty, without delay or discrimination. 

Art. 244. Eailways heretofore constructed, or that may 
hereafter be constructed in this State, are hereby declared public 
highways, and railroad companies common carriers. 



62 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

AiiT. 245. Every railroad or othei' corf)orations, organized 
or doing business in this State, under the laws or authority 
thereof, shall have and maintain a public office or place in this 
State for the transaction of its business, where transfers of stock 
shall be made, and where shall be kept for public inspection 
books in which shall be recorded the amount of capital stock 
subscribed, the names of owners of stock, the amounts owned by 
them respectively, the amount of stock paid, and by whom, the 
transfers of said stock, with the date of transfer, the amount of 
its assets and liabilities, and the names and places of residence 
of its officers. 

Art. 246. If any railroad company, organized under the 
laws of this State, shall consolidate, by sale or otherwise, with 
any railroad company organized under the laws of any other 
State or of the United States, the same shall not thereby become 
a foreign corporation, but the courts of this State shall retain 
jurisdiction in all matters which may arise, as if said consolida- 
tion had not taken place. In no case shall any one consolidation 
take place except upon public notice of at least sixty days to all 
stockholders, in such manner as may be provided by law. 

Art. 247. General laws shall be enacted providing foi' the 
creation of private corporations, and shall therein provide fully 
for the adequate iDrotection of the public and of the individual 
stockholder. 

Art. 248. The police juries of the several j)arishes and the 
constituted authorities of all incorporated municipalities of the 
State shall alone have the power of regulating the slaughtering of 
cattle and other like stock within their respective limits; ^ro- 
vided. no monopoly or exclusive privilege shall exist in this 
State, nor such business be restricted to the land or houses of 
any individual or corporation; provided^ the ordinances desig- 
nating the places for slaughtering shall obtain the concuri^ent 
approval of the board of health or other sanitary organizations. 

PAROCHIAL AFFAIRS AND BOUND Al^IES. 

Art. 249. The Genei'al Assembly may establish and organ- 
ize new parishes, which shall be bodies corporate, with such 
powers as may be prescribed by law; but no new parish shall con- 
tain less than six hundred and twenty-five square miles, nor less 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 63 

than seven thousand inhabitants; nor shall any i)arish be 
reduced below that area or number of inhabitants. . 

Art. 250. All laws changing parish lines or removing parish 
seats shall, before taking effect, be submitted to the electors of 
the parish or the parishes to be affected thereby, at a special 
election held for that purpose, and be adopted by majority of 
votes of each parish cast at such election. 

Art. 251. Any i)arish may be dissolved and merged by the 
General Assembly into a contiguous parish or parishes, two- 
thirds of the qualified electors of the parish proposed to be dis- 
solved voting in favor thereof, at an election held for that pur- 
pose; provided, that each of the parishes into which the dis- 
solved parish proposes to become incorporated consents thereto 
bj^ a majority of its qualified electors voting therefor. 

Art. 252. Whenever a parish shall be enlarged or created 
from territory contiguous thereto, it shall be entitled to a just 
proportion of the property and assets, and liable for a just pro- 
portion of the existing debts or liabilities of the parish or parishes 
from which such territory shall be taken. 

THE CITY OF :SEW OELEANS. 

Art. 253. The citizens of the city of New Orleans, or any 
political corporation which may be created within its limits, shall 
have the right of appointing the several public officers necessary 
for the administration of the police of said city, pursuant to the 
mode of election which shall be provided by the General Assembly. 

Art. 254. The General Assembly, at its next session after the 
adoption of the Constitution, shall enact such legislation as may 
be proper to liquidate the indebtedness of the city of New Or- 
leans, and apply its assets to the satisfaction thereof. It shall 
have authority to cancel the charter of said city, and remit its 
inhabitants to another form of government if necessary. In any 
such new form of government no salary shall exceed three 
thousand five hundred dollars. 

Art. 255. The General Assembly shall pass necessary laws 
to prevent sailors or others of the crew of foreign vessels from work- 
ing on the wharves and levees of the city of New Orleans; pro- 



64 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

vided, there is no treaty between the United States and foreign 
powers to the contrary-. 

AMENDMENT A.ND EEVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

ArTo 256. Propositions for the amendment of this Constitu- 
tion may be made by the General Assembly at any session thereof, 
and if two-thirds of all the members elected to each house shall 
concur therein, after such proposed amendments have been read 
in such respective houses on three separate days, such proposed 
amendment or amendments, together with the yeas and nays 
thereron, shall be entered on the journal, and the Secretary of 
State shall cause the same to be published in two newspapers 
published in the parish of Orleans and in one paper in each other 
parish of the State in which a newspaper is published, for three 
months preceding the next election for Eepresentatives, at which 
time the said amendment or amendments shall be submitted to the 
electors for their approval or rejection; and if a majority voting 
on said amendment or amendments shall approve and ratify the 
same, then such amendment or amendments so approved and 
ratified shall become a part of the Constitution. 

When more than one amendment shall be submitted at the 
same time, they shall be so submitted as to enable the electors to 
vote on each amendment separately. The result of said election 
shall be made known by the proclamation of the Governor. 

SCHEDULE. 

Art. 257. The Constitution of this State, adopted in 1868, 
and all amendments thereto, is declared to be superseded by this 
Constitution, and in order to carry the same into effect, it is 
Jiereby declared and ordained as follows: 

Art. 258. All rights, actions, prosecutions, claims and con- 
tracts, as wxll as of individuals as of bodies corporate, and all laws 
in force at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, and not 
inconsistent therewith, shall continue as if the said Constitution 
had not been adopted. But the monopoly features in the charter 
of any corporation now existing in the State, save such as may 
be contained in the charters of railroad companies, are hereby 
abolished. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 65 

Art. 259. In order that no inconvenience may result to the 
public service from the taking effect of this Constitution, no office 
shall be superseded thereby, but the laws of the State relative to 
the duties of the several officers— executive, judicial and mili- 
tary — shall remain in full force though tlie same be contrary to 
this Constitution, and the several duties shall be performed by 
the respective officers of the State, according to the existing laws, 
until the organization of the government under this Constitution 
and the entering into office of the new officers to be appointed or 
elected under said government, and no longer. 

Art. 260. Appointments to office by the Executive under 
this Constitution shall be made by the Governor to be elected 
under its authority. 

Art. 261. All causes in which appeals have been or may be 
hereafter rakeu, or now pending in the Supreme Court under the 
Constitution of 1868, and of which jurisdiction has been vested 
by this Constitution in the courts of appeal, shall, after the adop- 
tion of this Constitution, be transferred for trial to the Court of 
Appeal of the circuit from which the appeal has been or may be 
taken. 

All other causes that may be pending in the Supreme Court, 
under the Constitution of 1868, shall be transferred to the Su- 
preme Court created by this Constitution, as soon as it shall be 
organized, 

All causes that may be pending in all other courts, under the 
CoDstitution of 1868, upon the adoption of this Constitution and 
the organization of the courts created by this Constitution, shall 
be transferred to the courts respectively having jurisdiction 
thereof under this Constitution. 

Art. 262. Immediately after the adjournment of this Con- 
vention the Governor shall issue his proclamation, directing the 
several officers of the State authorized by law to hold elections for 
members of the General Assembly, to open and hold a poll in 
ever\^ parish in tlie State, at the places designated by law, upon 
the first Tuesday in the month of December next, 1879, for the 
purpose of taking the sense of the good people of this State in re- 
gard to the adoption or rejection of this Constitution; and it 
shall be the duty of said officers to receive the votes of all per- 
sons entitled to vote under the Constitution of 1868. 



66 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

Each voter shall express his opinion by depositing in the 
ballot box a ticket, whereon shall be written or printed, ''For the 
Constitution." or ''Against the Constitution," or some such 
3^ords as will distinctly convey the intention of the voter. 

It shall also be the duty of the Governor in his said proclama- 
tion, to direct the said officers authorized by law to hold elec- 
tions, to open and hold a poll at the above stated time and 
places, for the election of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, mem- 
bers of the General Assembly, Secretary of State, Attorney Gen- 
eral, State Auditor, and Superintendent of Public Education, 
and of all other officers whose election by the people is provided 
for in this Constitution; and the names of the persons voted for 
shall be written or printed on the same ticket and deposited in 
the same box as the votes ''for" or "against" the Constitution. 

And the said election for the adoption or rejection of the 
Constitution, and for the said officers, shall be conducted and the 
returns thereof made in conformity with the existing laws upon 
the subject of said elections. 

Upon the receipt of the said returns, or on the last Monday 
in December, 1879, if the returns be not sooner received, it shall 
be the duty of the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Sec- 
retary of State, and the Attorney General, in the presence of all 
such persons as may choose to attend, to compile the votes given 
at the said i^olls for ratitication or rejection of this Constitution; 
and if it shall appear from said returns that a majority of all the 
votes given on the question of adoption and rejection of the 
Constitution is for ratifying this Constitution, then it shall be the 
duty of the Governor to make immediate ijroclamation of the 
fact, and henceforth this Constitution shall be ordained and es- 
tablished as the Constitution of the State of Louisiana, and the 
General Assembly elected in 1878 shall thereupon be dissolved. 
Whether this Constitution be adopted or rejected, it shall be the 
duty of the Governor to cause to be i^ublished in the official 
palmer of the Convention the result of the polls, showing the 
uumber of votes cast in each parish for and against the Constitu- 
tion. 

If the Constitution be ratified, it shall be the duty of the 
Secretary of State to examine and comx^ile the returns, and 
publish the result of the election of officers herein ordained, and 
in the nuxnner provided by existing laws. 



ConHtittiiion of the State of Louisiana. 67 

Art. 263. The General Assembly first elected under this 
Constitution shall convene in the city of jS'ew Orleans upon the 
second Monday in January next, 1880, alter the electiou, and the 
Governor and Lieutenant Governor elected shall be duly installed 
in office during the first week ot the session, and before it shall 
be competent for the said General Assembly to proceed with the 
transaction of business beyond their own organization. 

Art. 264. The State Auditor, Attorney General, Secretary 
of State and Superintendent of Public Education, elected at the 
first election herein provided for, shall enter upon the discharge 
of the duties of their respective offices on the second Monday of 
January. 1880, after complying with the requisites of existing 
laws; and all other officers whose election or appointment is pro- 
vided for by this Constitution shall enter upon the discharge of 
the duties of their respective offices on the firstMonday of April, 
1880, after complying with the requirements of existing laws; 
until whicli period all officers under the Constitution of 1868 shall 
receive the pay and emoluments provided for under said Con- 
stitution: provided, that the p)ay of the officers elected or ap- 
pointed undei' this Constitution shall not commence until after 
their induction into office. The State Treasurer elected in IS^o- 
vember, 1878, shall continue in office as if elected at the election 
to be held on the first Tuesday in December, 1879, but the salary 
of said officer shall be as established by this Constitution from 
and after the second Monday in January, 1880. 

Art. 265. The time of service of all officers chosen by the 
people at the first election under this Constitution shall terminate 
as though the election had been holden on the first Tuesday after 
the first Monday in April. 1880. 

Art. 266. The judges of the courts of appeal, district 
judges, city judges, district attorney, coroners, clerks of courts, 
sheriffs, recorder of mortgages and register of conveyances, all 
of. whose election and appointment are provided for by this Con- 
stitution, in the parish of Orleans, shall only enter on the dis- 
charge of the duties of their respective offices on the first Monday 
of August, 1880, and the present incumbents shall continue un- 
til then in the performance of the duties of their respective offices 
and the enjoyment of the emoluments thereof, as now prescribed 
by law. 

Art. 267. The General Assembly is required to make pro- 



t)8 Constitut'iov of ihe State of Lovisntim. 

vision for paying J. B. Cosgrove, Printer of the Convention, for 
the balance due him for work clone previous to adjournment, and 
for all work that may be done by him after adjournment of the 
Convention by its direction, and shall make a special appropria- 
tion to liquidate the debt which this Convention has contracted, 
authorizing the Fiscal Agent of the State to negotiate a loan of 
twenty -five thousand dollars; and also for the payment of such 
vouchers as may be issued by the chairman of the Committee on 
Contingent Expenses, under the anthority of this Convention, in 
excess of the foregoing appropriation, for the purpose of enabling 
this Cojivention to complete its work; provided, said vouchers 
are approved by the President of the Convention. 

Art. 2(38. There shall not be any municipal election in the 
cities of Xew Orleans and Shreveport in December, 1879; the 
General Assembly shall provide for a municipal election in thfe 
city of ^ew Orleans, or such municipal corporations as may be 
created within the territorial limits of the parish of Orleans 
during the year 1880. The General Assembly shall fix the time 
for a municipal election in the city of Shreveport before April, 
1884. 

LOUIS A. WILTZ, 
President and Delegate from the Ninth Eepresentative District 

of the Parish of Orleans. 
Wm. H. Harris. Secretary. 



MISCELLANEOUS ORDINANCES. 

RELIEF or DELINQUENT TAXPAYERS. 

Article 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Loimiana, 
in Convention assembled, All interests, penalties, costs, fees and 
charges whatever on taxes and licenses due the State, or any 
political corporation therein, prior to the first day of January, 
1879, and yet unpaid, are remitted, and all property forfeited to 
the State or any political corporation on account of non-payment 
of taxes and licenses, or to which the State or any political cor- 
poration now has a title, shall be redeemable, and the title to the 
State or any political corporation thereto annulled upon the pay- 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 69 

inent by the debtor, or any interested party, of the principal of 
all taxes and licenses that may be due thereon at the date of re- 
demption, and this right of redemption shall continue until the 
first day of January, 1881. In the event the principal of said 
taxes and licenses is not paid by said time, the interest, penalties, 
costs, fees and charges hereinbefore remitted shall revive and 
attach to the property upon which the taxes and licenses are due, 
and such property shall be then sold in the manner to be provided 
by law, and the title of the purchaser shall be full and complete; 
provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed as 
affecting the rights of third persons who may have purchased 
property, legally assessed and sold at tax sales, or from the 
State, or any political corporation, after the same was legally 
forfeited to or purchased by the State or such corporation; and 
provided furthe?^ that nothing in the ordinance shall be taken as 
granting any time for the payment of the principal of said taxes 
and licenses; and provided farther, that interest shall accrue and 
be collected on the i)rincii3al of said delinquent taxes and licenses 
at the rate of eight per cent, per annum from January 1, 1880; 
and on all said taxes and licenses paid a discount of ten per cent, 
per annum shall be allowed from the date of payment'to Janu- 
ary 1, 1881. 

That all taxes and licenses due the State prior to January 1, 
1879, may be paid as follows: 

1. That portion of said taxes and licenses due the General 
Fund and other funds, except as hereinafter provided, in any 
valid Auditor's warrants outstanding at the date of adoption of 
this Constitution, except all warrants issued prior to the first of 
January, 1874, and also all warrants issued from first of Jan- 
uary. 1874, to first of January, 1875, for other purposes than for 
salaries of constitutional officers, or for the support of charitable 
institutions for the year 1874. 

That, at the option of the holders of any of said warrants, 
the said warrants may be funded in bonds of the denomination of 
five dollars, w ith interest coupons attached thereto, at the rate 
of three per cent, per annum interest from the first day of July, 
1880; the said bonds to be due and payable six years from the 
first day of January, 1880, the said coupons being payable at 
the State Treasury on the first day of February and August of 
each vear. 



'0 Constitution of the State of Louisiana . 



All moneys received in the treasury for all taxes and licenses 
due the State prior to the first day of January, 1879, except such 
as are otherwise provided for by this ordinance, shall be set 
aside to pay the interest on said five-dollar bonds, and to pro- 
vide a sinking fund to redeem the same. The bonds above pro- 
vided and interest coupons shall also be receivable for amounts 
due to the State for the redemption or purchase of property 
which has been forfeited or sold to the State for delinquent taxes 
and licenses of any of the years named in this article. The bonds 
so issued shall be receivable for the said taxes and licenses and 
the obligations of the i^ublic charitable institutions of the State 
given for the purchase of necessary supplies of food, clothing, 
medicine and hire of employes. 

2. That portion of said taxes and licenses due the [nterest 
Fund, subsequent to January, 1874, in any matured coupons 
issued by the State since that date. 

3. That portion of said tax due the Levee Fund since the 
year eighteen hundred and seventy-one to the year eighteen 
hundred and seventy-six, inclusive of both years, in any valid 
warrants issued by the levee company and endorsed by the 
Auditor and Treasurer of the State, as follows: ''Eeceivable for 
levee tax due for eighteen hundred and seventy-one to eighteen 
hundred and seventy-six, inclusive;'' and the Auditor and Treas- 
urer are hereby authorized to so endorse warrants issued by the 
levee company, as provided above, to an amount sufficient to 
cover the balance due on the judgment recovered by said com- 
pany in the case entitled Louisiana Levee Company vs. the State 
of Louisiana, ^o. 7163, in the Supreme Court of Louisiana. - 

Be it further enacted, etc.. That no Auditor's warrants shall 
be taken as valid for the purpose of payment of taxes and licenses? 
or for funding as hereinbefore prescribed until the same shall 
have been examined by the Auditor, Treasurer and Attorney 
General of the State and endorsed by them as valid; said war- 
rants, when so endorsed, may be surrendered to said officers, and 
by them registered and canceled, and in lieu thereof said Auditor 
and Treasurer shall issue certificates in sums of five, ten, twenty, 
or fifty dollars, as may be desired by the holder of said warrants, 
which shall be receivable for all taxes and licenses due the State 
prior to January 1, 1879, except the taxes due the Interest Fund 
and Levee Fund. 



Constitution of the State of Louisvnia. 71 

Be it further ordained, That all taxes aud licenses due any 
parish or municipal corporation prior to January 1, 1879, may be 
payable in any valid warrants, scrip or floating indebtedness of 
said parish or municipal corporation, except judgments. 

INDEBTEDNESS OF THE STATE TO ITS FISCAL AGENT. 

Be it ordained by the People of the State of Louisiana in Conven- 
tion assembled. The debt due from the State to its Fiscal Agent, 
being in amount one hundred and eighty-seven thousand sev- 
enty-seven dolhirs and twenty-four cents ($187,077.24), subject 
to such reductio7i as may result from credits arising out of taxes 
due to the Interest Fund since June 30, 1879, which said debt was 
created under the contract made between the Board of Liquida- 
tors and the Fiscal Agent, under date of twenty-fifth May, 1877, 
and under act No. 28, session of the Legislature of 1878, is 
hereby declared to be a valid obligation of the State; and the 
Legislature shall, at its first session after the adoption of this 
Constitution, provide for the payment of the same, and the 
Fiscal Agent shall, as a condition precedent to said payment, 
surrender and deliver to the Auditor of the State for cancella- 
tion the interest coui:)ons which were taken up and held by said 
Fiscal Agent at the time of making the advances which created 
the said indebtedness; but the interest to be allowed said Fiscal 
Agent shall be at the rate of four i^er cent, per annum until the 
debt is paid. 

LOAN BY FISCAL AGENT. 

Article 1. Be it ordained by the People of the State of Louis- 
iana i7i Convention assembled, That the Fiscal Agent of this State 
shall be and is hereby empowered by authority of this Convention 
to negotiate a loan of twenty -five thousand dolhirs or so much 
thereof as may be necessary, at seven per cent, per annum, to 
defray the residue of the expenses of this Convention not provided 
for by the act of the General Assembly calling this Convention, and 
to enable the Convention, to complete the work of framing the 
new Constitution. 

Art. 2. That said loan shall be evidenced by certificates of 
indebtedness, signed by the President of this Convention and 
countersigned by the Secretary thereof, under seal of this Con- 



72 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

ventiou, in sums of five hundred dollars or under, bearing seven 
per cent, per annum interest from the date of such certificates 
until paid, and payable on the fifteenth day of March, A. D. 
1880, at the State National Bank of :N'ew Orleans, in the city of 
New Orleans. 

Art. 3. The first General Assembly convened under this 
Constitution shall make a special appropriation to liquidate the 
debt which this Convention has contracted or niay contract, as 
per ordinance adopted authorizing the Fiscal Agent of the State 
to negotiate a loan of twenty -five thousand dollars for the purpose 
of enabling this Convention to complete the work of framing tliis 
Constitution. 

LOUIS A. WILTZ, 
President and Delegate from the Ninth Representative District 
of the Parish of Orleans. 
Wm. H. Harris, Secretary. 

STATE DEBT. 

Article 1. Be it ordained by the People of the State of Louisiana 
in Convention assembled, That the interest to be paid on the consoli- 
dated bonds of the State of Louisiana be and is hereby fixed at 
two per cent, per annum for five years from the first of January, 
1880, three per cent, per annum for fifteen years, and four j^er 
cent, per annum thereafter, payable semi-annually; and there 
shall be levied an annual tax sufficient for the full payment of 
said interest, not exceeding three mills, the limit of all State tax 
being hereby fixed at six mills; provided, the holders of consoli- 
dated bonds may, at their option, demand in exchange for the 
bonds held by them bonds of the denomination of five dollars, 
one hundred dollars, five hundred dollars, one thousand dollars, 
to be issued at the rate of seventy -five cents on the dollar of 
bonds held and to be surrendered by such holders, the said new 
issue to bear interest at the rate of four per cent, per annum, 
payable semi-annually. 

Art. 2. The holders of the consolidated bonds may at any 
time present their bonds to the Treasurer of the State, or an agent 
to be appointed by the Governor — one in the city of New York 
and the other in the city of London — and the said Treasurer or 
agent, as the case may be, shall endorse or stamp thereon the 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 73 

words 'interest reduced to two per cent per annum for five 
3^ears from January I, 1S80; three per cent, per annum for fif- 
teen years and four per cent. per. annum thereafteYf^ provided, 
the holder or holders of said bonds may apply to the Treasurer 
for an exchange of bonds, as provided in the preceding article. 

Art. 3. Be it further ordained, That the coupons of said 
consolidated bonds falling due the first of January, 1880, be and 
the same are hereby remitted, and any interest taxes collected to 
meet said coupons are hereby transferred to defray the expenses 
of the State government. 

Beit further ordained, and if is hereljy ordained by this Constitu- 
tional Convention, That the foregoing provisions and articles rela- 
tive to the consolidated debt shall not form a part of this Consti- 
tution, except as hereinafter provided, as follows: 

At the election held for the ratification or rejection of this 
Constitution, it shall be law^ful for each voter to have written or 
printed on his ballot the words, "For ordinance relative to State 
debt," or the words, 'Against ordinance relative to State debt," 
and in the event that a majority of the ballots so cast have en- 
dorsed on them the words, "For ordinance relative to State 
debt," then the said foregoing provisions and articles of this 
ordinance shall form a part of the Constitution submitted if the 
same is ratified; and if a majority of the votes cast shall have 
endorsed on them the words, "Against ordinance relative to 
State debt," then said provision and articles shall form no part 
of this Constitution. 

LOUIS A. WILTZ. 
President and Delegate from the Ninth Eepresentative District 

of the Parish of Orleans. 
Wm. H. Harris. Secretary. 



AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTION. 



ACT No. 76, OF 1882. 

STATE DEBT. 

Article 1. Be it ordained by the People of the State of Louis- 
iana as provided by law, That the State Debt Ordinanee be amended 
so as to read as follows: That the interest to be paid on the 
Consolidated Bonds of the State of Lonisiana be, and is hereby 
fixed at two per centum per annnm for five years, from the first 
day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty (1880), 
and four per centum per annum thereafter, payable semi-annu- 
allyj and there shall be levied an annual tax sufficient for the 
full payment of said interest, not exceeding three mills, the limit 
of State tax for all purposes being hereby fixed at six millS; and 
said bonds and coupons shall be duly stamped: '^Interest re- 
duced to two per centum per annum for five years from January 
first, one thousand eight hundred and eighty, and four per 
centum per annum thereafter." 

Art. 2. That the holders of the Consolidated Bonds may, at 
any time, in order that the coupons may be paid, pi-esent their 
bonds to the Treasurer of the State, or to agents to be appointed 
by the Governor, one in the city of jSTew York and the other in 
the city of Loudon, England; and the said Treasurer, or agents, 
as the case may be, shall endorse or stamp thereon the words: 
^^ Interest reduced to two per centum per annum for five years^ 
from January first, one thousand eight hundred and eighty ( 1880)^ 
and four per centum per annum thereafter;" and said Treasurer 
or agent shall endorse or stamp on said coupons the following 
words: ''Interest reduced to two per centum per annum," or 
'^Interest reduced to four per centum per annum," as the case 
may be. 

ACT No. 125, OF 1882. 

Art. 81. The Supreme Court, except in cases hereinafter pro- 
vided, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which jurisdiction 



76 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

shall extend to all cases when the matter in dispute, or the fund 
to be distributed, whatever may be the amount therein claimed, 
shall exceed two thousand dollars, exclusive of interest; to suits 
of divorce and separation from bed and board; to suits for 
nullity of marriage; to suits iuvolving the rights to homesteads; 
to suits for interdiction, and to all cases in which the constitu- 
tionality or legality of any tax, toll or impost whatever, or of any 
line, forfeiture or penalty imposed by a municipal corporation 
shall be in constestation, whatever may be the amount thereof, 
and in such cases the appeal on the law and the facts shall be 
directly from the court in which the case originated to the 
Supreme Court; and to criminal cases on questions of law alone, 
whenever the xjunishment of death or imiH^sonment at hard labor 
maybe inflicted, or a fine exceeding three hundred dollars ($300), 
is actually imposed. 

Aet. 95. The court of appeals, except in cases hereinafter 
provided, shall have api)ellate jurisdiction only, which jurisdic- 
tion shall extend in all cases, civil or probate, when the matter 
in dispute or the funds to be distributed shall exceed one hundred 
dollars, exclusive of interest. 

Art. 101. Whenever the judges composing the courts of 
appeal shall concur, their judgment shall be final. Whenever 
there shall be a disagreement the two judges shall appoint a 
lawyer having the qualifications for a judge of the court of 
appeals of their circuit, who shall aid in the determination of the 
case; a judgment concurred in by any two of them shall be final. 

Art, 128. There shall be in the parish of Orleans a court of 
appeals for said parish, with exclusive appellate jurisdiction in 
all matters, civil and iDrobate, arising in said parish, when the 
amount in dispute, or fund to be distributed, exceeds one hun- 
dred dollars, exclusive of interest, and does not exceed two 
thousand dollars, exclusive of interest; said court shall be pre- 
sided over by two judges, who shall be elected by the General. 
Assembly, in joint session; they shall be residents and voters of 
the city of New Orleans, possessing all the qualifications neces- 
sary for judges of circuit courts of appeal throughout the State; 
they shall each receive an annual salary of four thousand dollars, 
payable monthly upon their respective warrants. Said appeals 
shall be upon questions of law alone, in all cases involving 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 77 



less than five hundred dollars, exclusive of interest, and upon 
the law and the facts in other cases. It shall sit m tlie city of 
New Orleans from the first Monday of ]N"ovember to the last 
Monday in June in each year; it shall have authority to issue 
writs of mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, and habeas corpus 
in aid of its appellate jurisdiction. 

Art. 130. For the parish of Orleans there shall be two dis- 
trict courts and no more. One of said courts shall be known as 
"The Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans," and the 
other as "The Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans.'' 
The former shall consist of not less than five judges, and the 
latter not less than two judges, having the qualifications pre- 
scribed for district judges throughout the State. The said 
judges shall be appointed hj the Governor, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, for the term of eight years. 
The first appointment shall be made as follows: Three judges of 
the Civil District Court for four years, and two judges for eight 
years. One judge of the Criminal District Court for four years, 
and one for eight years, the terms to be designated in their com- 
missions. The said judges shall receive each four thousand dol- 
lars per annum. Said Civil District Court shall have exclusive 
and general probate, and exclusive civil jurisdiction, in all cases, 
when the amount in dispute or to be distributed exceeds one 
hundred dollars, exclusive of interest; and exclusive of appellate 
jurisdiction from the city courts of the parish of Orleans, when 
the amount in dispute exceeds twenty-five dollars, exclusive of 
interest. All causes filed in said courts shall be equally allotted 
and assigned among said judges, in accordance with rules of 
court to be adopted for the purj)ose. In case of recusation of 
any judge in any cause, such cause shall be reassigned, or in 
case of absence from the i)arish, sickness or the disability of the 
judge to whom said cause may have been assigned, any judge 
of said court may issue or grant conservatory writs or orders. 
In other respects, each judge shall have exclusive control over 
every cause assigned to him. from its inception to its final deter- 
mination in said court. The Criminal District Court shall have 
criminal jurisdiction only. All prosecutions instituted in said 
court shall be equally apportioned between said judges by lot. 
Each judge or his successor shall have exclusive control over 
every cause falling to him, from its inception to its final determi- 



78 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

nation in said court. In case of vacancy or recusation causes 
assigned shall be reassigned under order of court. 

Art. 135. There shall be in the city of New Orleans four 
city courts, one of which shall be located in that portion of the 
city on the right bank of the Mississijipi river, presided over by 
judges having all the qualifications required of a district judge, 
and shall be elected by the qualified voters for the term of four 
years; they shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all sums not 
exceeding one hundred dollars, exclusive of interest, subject to 
an appeal to the Civil District Court when the amount claimed 
exceeds twenty five dollars, exclusive of interest. The Geueral 
Assembly shall regulate the salaries, territorial division of juris- 
diction, the manner of executing their process, the fee bill, and 
proceedings which shall govern them; they shall have authority 
to execute commissions, to take testimony, and shall receive 
therefor such fees as may be allowed by law. The General As- 
sembly may increase the number of city courts for the said par- 
ish — not to exceed eight in all, until otherwise provided by law; 
each of said courts shall have one clerk, to be elected for the 
term of four years by the qualified voters of the parish, who shall 
receive a salary of twelve hundred dollars per annum, and no 
more, and whose qualifications, bonds and duties shall be regu- 
lated by law. 

ACT No. 113, of 1882. 

Art. 146. All fees and charges fixed by law for the various 
civil courts of the parish of Orleans, and for the register of con- 
veyances and recorder of mortgages of said parish, shall enure 
to the State; and all sums realized therefrom shall be set aside 
and held as a special fund, out of which shall be paid, by prefer- 
ence the expenses of the clerk of the Civil District Court, the 
clerks of the city courts, the register of conveyances and the re- 
corder of mortgages for the parish of Orleans; provided, that the 
State will never make any payment to any sheriff, clerk, register 
of conveyances or recorder of mortgages of the parish of Orleans, 
or any of their deputies, for salary or other exi^enses of their re- 
spective offices, except from the special fund provided for by this 
article; and any appropriation made contrary to this provision 
shall be null and void. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 79 

ACT :So. 88, OF 1886. 

Art. 62. That in the event of tlie deatli, or from whatever 
cause the office of Lieutenant Governor shall become vacant, then 
and in that event the President pro temjwie of the Senate shall 
fill the office of the Lieutenant Governor, performing all the 
duties incident to the office and receiving its emoluments. 

JOINT EESOLUTIOX No. 28, OF 1886. 

Art. 117. In those districts composed of one parish there 
shall not be less than six terms of the district court each year. 
In all other districts there shall be in each parish not less than 
four terms of the district court each year, excei^t in the parishes 
of Cameron, Franklin and Yernon, in which there shall not be 
less than two terms of the district court each year. Until pro- 
vided by law the terms of the district court in each parish shall 
be fixed by rule of said court, which shall not be changed without 
notice by publication at least thirty days prior to such change. 

There shall be in each parish not less than two jury terms 
each year, at which a grand jury shall be empaneled, except- 
ing the parishes of Cameron, Franklin and Vernon, in which 
there shall not be less than one jury term each year, at which a 
grand jury shall be empaneled. 

At other jury terms the General Assembly shall provide for 
special juries when necessary for the trial of criminal cases. 

JOINT EESOLUTION No. 75, OF 1886. 

Art. 180. The Ncav Basin Canal and Shell Road and their 
appurtenances shall not be leased nor alienated. 

JOINT EESOLUTION No. 92, OF 1886. 

Art. 207. The following property shall be exempt from 
taxation and no other, viz: All public property, places of reli- 
gious worship or burial, all charitable institutions, all buildings 
and luoperty used exclusively for colleges or other school pur- 
poses; the real and personal estate of any public library, and 
that of an}^ other literary association used by or connected with 
such library; all books and philosophical apparatus, and all 
paintings and statuary of any company or association kept in a 



80 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. 

public hall; provided, the property so exempted be not used or 
leased for purposes of private or corporate profit or income. 
There shall also be exempt from taxation household property to 
the value of five hundred dollars: there shall also be exempt 
from taxation and license for a period of twenty years from the 
adoption of the Constitution of 1879 the capital, machinery and 
other property employed in the manufacture of textile fabrics, 
leather, shoes, harness, saddlery, hats, flour, machinery, agricul- 
tural implements, manufacture of ice, fertilizers and chemicals, 
and furniture, and other articles of wood, marble or stone, soap, 
stationery, ink and paper, boat building and chocolate; provided, 
that not less than five hands are employed in any one factory, 

ACT No. 43, of ] 884. 
Art. 269. The terms of act No. 43 of the regular session of 
1884. adopted at the session of the Legislature in the year 1884, 
are hereby ratified nnd approved, and all provisious of the Con- 
stitution of 1879 repugnant thereto, or in any way imjiairing the 
l^assage thereof, are hereby repealed, so far as tiie operations of 
said act are concerned. 

JOINT EESOLUTION No. 112, OF 1884. 
Art. 270. The General Assembly may divide the State into 
Levee Districts and provide for the appointment or election of 
Levee Commissioners in said districts, who shall, in the method 
and manner to be provided by law, have supervision of the erec- 
tion, repair and maiutenauce of the levees in said districts; to 
that effect the Levee Commissioners may levy a tax not to exceed 
ten mills on the taxable property situated within the alluvial 
portions of said districts subject to overflow; provided, that in 
case of necessity to raise additional funds for the purpose of con- 
structing, preserving or repairing any levees protecting the lands 
of a district, the rate of taxation herein limited, maybe increased 
when the rate of such increase and the necessity and purpose for 
which it is intended shall have been submitted to a vote of the 
property taxpayejs of such district, paying taxes for himself, or 
in any representative capacity, whether resident or non-resident, 
on property situated within the alluvial portion of said district 
subject to overflow, and a majority of those in number and value, 
voting at such election, shall have voted therefor. 



Constitution of the State of Louisiana, 81 

JOINT RES0LTJTI0:N^ Ko. 110, OF 1890. 

Art. 271. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives of the State of Louisiana^ tivo- thirds of all the members elected to 
each house concurring, That the following amendments to the Con- 
stitution of the State be submitted to the electors of the State 
at the next election for Representatives for the General Assembly 
in the year 1892, for the purpose of retiring the now existing 
valid outstanding bonds of the city of New Orleans, including 
the bond certificates of bonds issued under the act of the Legis- 
lature, 'No. 58, of 1882, and to retire judgments now or hereafter 
rendered against the city on floating debt claims prior to 1879, 
entitled to be funded under act No. 67, of 1884, the said city of 
New Orleans is hereby authorized and directed, on and after the 
adoption of this amendment, to issue, through the Board of Liqui- 
dation of the City Debt, bonds to be known as the Constitutional 
Bonds of the City of New Orleans, not to exceed ten millions of 
dollars, at fifty j-ears, bearing four per cent, per annum interest, 
to bear date and be in the form prescribed by the Legislature. 
The said bonds shall be applied by the said board to the retire- 
ment of said outstanding bonds and judgments, by the sale of 
said constitutional bonds, and application of the proceeds of sale 
by the Board of Liquidation to pay or purchase said outstand- 
ing bonds and judgments, or by exchanging the said constitu- 
tional bonds for bonds on the terms and in the mode prescribed 
by the Legislature. For the payment of the interest and princi- 
pal at maturity of said constitutional bonds, and other outstand- 
ing bonds not retired under this amendment, and for the pay- 
ment of the annual allotments and premiums of the premium 
bonds of said city, the said city is hereby authorized and directed 
to levy annuallj^, and until the full payment of said bonds, a 
special tax of one per cent, on all the real and personal property of 
the city, said tax to be a part of and not in addition to the tax of 
twenty mills and two-tenths of a mill on the dollar of valuation 
now levied for all purposes by the city of Ncav Orleans, and the 
said tax shall be paid over as collected to, and be applied by, the 
Board of Liquidation, to the j)ayment of the interest and princi- 
pal at maturity of said constitutional bonds, and outstanding 
bonds not retired, and to the payment of the allotments of pre- 
miums extant, in the hands of holders. 



82 Constihdion of the State of Louisiana. 

Said tax is hereby declared to be the contract right of the 
holders of all said bonds; and the exemption of said constitu- 
tional bonds from all taxation by the city of New Orleans and 
State of Louisiana is hereby recognized and declared, and after 
payment of all the annual interest on said constitutional bonds 
and bonds not retired, and the payment of the said annual airoT- 
ments of premium bonds and premiums extant in the hands of 
holders, and after making provisions for a sinking fund, at such 
time and of such an amount as the Legislature prescribes, the 
surplus of said one per cent, shall be disposed of as prescribed by 
the Legislature. 

The act passed at the present session, I^o. 36, entitled ' 'An act 
to carr}^ into effect the constitutional amendment i^assed at the 
present session relative to the bond debt of the city of New Or- 
leans," etc., be and is hereby approved in all its parts as a con- 
tract between the city of New Orleans and the holders of said 
constitutional bonds, x^i'ei^^ii^iii bonds, and of the bonds outstand- 
ing not retired, as aforesaid. 

Sec. 2. Be it further resolved, etc., That the city of New Or- 
leans be and is herebj" authorized and empowered to examine 
into and assume the payment of the claims or obligations of the 
Board of School Directors for the city and parish of Orleans due 
for the years 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883 and 1884, now in the hands 
of original owners, who have in nowise parted with their right 
of ownershii^ or pledged the same, as may be found to be equit- 
ably due by said board for services rendered, labor performed or 
materials furnished by authority of said board. 

Sec. 3. Be it further resolved, ^^c. That all electors voting at 
said election for said amendments shall place upon their ballots 
the words, ''For the city of New Orleans debt amendment," and 
all electors voting at said election against amendment shall place 
on their ballots the Avords, "Against the city of New Orleans 
debt amendment. " , 



